A LITTLE bit of recycling is happening with Australian Wool Innovation.
The announcement last week that AWI was launching a marketing program in China, using Gold Woolmark, had C&C pondering where and when he had heard before about the gold-encrusted Woolmark logo.
In 2002, the former Woolmark wooed the Italian upmarket apparel manufacturer Ermengildo Zegna with a Gold Woolmark licence, over which it would have exclusive rights for 12 months. Until then, Count Paolo Zegna had had little time for Woolmark.
His beef was that he didn't see any advantage in attaching a Woolmark swing tag to a $6000 Zegna suit, the same tag that was applied to a $50 wool sweater from Kmart.
He was looking for some differential, hence the Gold Woolmark.
We didn't hear anything more about the Gold Woolmark until December last year, when in a review of its labels AWI announced that it was scrapping the Gold and Platinum Woolmark labels.
Now it has been reborn, with up to six European manufacturers of luxury apparel licensed to use Gold Woolmark to promote their wares in China. Unconfirmed reports indicate Ermengildo Zegna is one of the six.
Rain delay?
WOOL receivals for August were down 9 per cent, according to the latest testing throughput from the Australian Wool Testing Authority.
Operations manager Tim Steere said that despite the rain-interrupted shearing, Victorian receivals were only down 5 per cent compared to August last year, while NSW receivals were down by up to 15 per cent.
Whether the NSW result was due to a combination of the poor shearing weather and the flock downturn, was something that won't become clearer until the end of October.
Tim said AWTA conducted only 4060 tests last week in Melbourne, compared to 6500 in the corresponding week last year.
