WOOLMARK licences are of little value either to wool's retail customers or the end consumer, according to Australian Wool Innovation director Laurence Modiano.
Mr Modiano's blunt assessment of the Woolmark licence came in a report to last month's AWI board meeting, which triggered the resignation of chief executive Brenda McGahan.
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The report coincided with the controversial letter from Italian processors critical of the AWI delegation which visited European and Asian processors and manufacturers.
Mr Modiano and fellow AWI directors Chick Olsson and Dr Meredith Sheil were members of that delegation.
UK-based Mr Modiano, who has been lobbying for a transfer of AWI marketing to London, also has been very public about the need to "revitalise" Woolmark.
"The mass-market Asians derive benefit from our superwash knowledge and pipeline connections, the quality players virtually none," Mr Modiano said in his report.
"It struck me that $US6000 was a very cheap price to charge companies with billions of dollars in turnover for our technical knowledge.
"Although there is little new in our product they would be paying at least 10 times this sum if AWI wasn't handing it over.
"The Europeans made it clear they do not benefit from AWI product development.
"Wool growers have invested some $1.5 billion in Woolmark. It is their greatest and most under-utilised asset."
Mr Modiano said selling a licence for US$6000, whether to a small knitter or a huge brand, made no sense.
"For too long AWI has imposed its rules on Woolmark licensees without investing in the mark to make it relevant or desirable. "It has ended up, as we saw in Japan, cheapening itself by association with mass-market goods where wool would have been used anyway," he said.
Mr Modiano said today's consumer market was "savvy, sophisticated and complex".
"Woolmark has to be allowed to adapt to the needs and desires of each retail brand and the context of its consumer market," he said.
Mr Modiano said the AWI overseas team was excellent, had good relations with clients, and a good knowledge of the wool industry and its developments.
But he said they felt frustrated not only by the lack of new material to help them sell the wool story, but even more so by the "legal and administrative quagmire" AWI's Sydney office imposed on any new idea, initiative or proposal.
AWI chairman Wal Merriman said directors were entitled to their opinions and reiterated his previous statement that he didn't intend to gag them.
