Firm helps breeders add more value to fleeces

SINCE the move to Cornwall five years ago, the Natural Fibre Company has built on the foundations laid in Wales to develop more services and scale, enabling sheep breeders to add ever more value to their fleeces.

In recent years, average wool prices have fallen slowly but steadily, except for a slight upward blip during 2008. Unlike times past, the wool cheque today rarely covers the cost of shearing and transporting the fleeces to the nearest British Wool Marketing Board depot. So shearing is often seen as a welfare cost rather than a source of good income.

Wool is a world commodity and demand and prices are subject to international economic influences and strong competition from artificial fibres and cotton. The Wool Board continues to provide strong promotion for British Wool – indeed the quality and survival of the British carpet industry relies on this. But there is not always a ready market for some of the more specialised, coloured, fine or organic wools and for the small amounts of rare-breed fleeces. Yet these fleeces are exactly the most interesting to us – and therefore also for the farmer or smallholder. Indeed, the prices for some special fleeces are now rising.The Natural Fibre Company's commission-spinning business has trebled over the last four years, both due to new customers and to the growth of existing ones. In the last year, income nearly doubled.

Wool is a high-performance natural fibre, with enviable attributes compared to almost all other fibres. It is sustainable and replaceable, it wicks and absorbs moisture, it does not burn and it has a memory due to the crimp in the fibres. All of this means that not only is wool seeing a resurgence through hand-knit and machine-knitting, but also as the fabric of choice for suiting, sportswear, fashion, furnishings (particularly bedding) and, of course, carpets and rugs.

Due to steady investment, Natural Fibre Company processes now include sorting, grading, scouring raw fibre, preparing carded fibre and tops, spinning both on the woollen and the worsted systems and yarn and textile piece dyeing. Apart from wool, the company also spins mohair and alpaca and blends fibres together, adding silk, flax and hemp when required.

The company also has partnerships with several weavers to get attractive textiles woven.

Its customers range from individual craft workers, making items by hand from the special fleeces from rare flocks, to much larger enterprises, including wool-trade customers seeking expertise in processing amounts from 20kg up to 800kg plus. The company can work individually with each customer to provide exactly what they need to add value to their fleece.

In addition to doing the processing, the company works with customers to ensure the fleece is the best it can be, and to design the right products, suitable for each fleece type. It can also help customers to promote the products, as it is essential to be able to sell what has been made. This means that wool can start to become more valuable.

The website, www.thenaturalfibre.co.uk carries case studies of some Natural Fibre Company customers and their achievements.