HRH The Prince of Wales announces global Campaign for Wool

The Campaign for Wool (CfW), the cross industry organisation convened by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to promote the understanding and use of wool, is to extend its promotional activities and will go global next year.

The Prince told delegates at the British Wool Marketing Boards annual conference in Bradford today that next year, The CfW will develop a global platform to take the promotion into valuable international markets in Asia and the USA, following the success of the initiative in the UK this year, which culminated in Wool Week in October.

The price of British Wool in the UK has risen from 70 pence per kg to 1.55 pence per kg in the last twelve months. In part this rise has been the market response to the high profile promotions rolled out by leading brands and high street retailers as part of Wool Week and the broader campaign.

The CfW will play an important part in building and maintaining the wool price in the next five years. Promoting the key messages about the attributes of wool has been the basis of the initiative to help reposition wool as the natural fibre for fashion, interiors and the built environment.

During his trip to Bradford, The Prince viewed an exhibition from local spinners and weavers, visited Haworth Scouring, a leading British scouring company that has invested significantly in environmental processes for cleaning wool, before moving on to Bulmer & Lumb, the worsted cloth manufacturer and one of the largest employers in the West Yorkshire textile industry.

Finally, HRH gave a speech to sheep farmers from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and members of the textile industry at the British Wool Marketing Boards annual conference.

He also received a knitted portrait, made from wool, gifted by the British Wool Marketing Board on behalf of the sheep farmers of the UK. The portrait was created by Maria Losch, an American artist based in Oregon who specialises in knitted wool portraiture.

The Prince of Wales says: It gives me great pleasure to see that The Campaign for Wool is working successfully and helping to develop the market and increase the price of this wonderful fibre. The wool and textile industry around Bradford plays a vital role in the economic wellbeing of this region and to the whole of the UK and I am greatly encouraged by the impressive levels of innovation and quality at the sites I am visiting today.

Sheep farmers in the UK have received low prices for this wonderful fibre for far too long and I am here to illustrate that The Campaign is committed to ensuring that the wool industry has a united message and that wool will be promoted internationally to give it every opportunity to achieve a strong and successful future.

Frank Langrish, Chairman of the British Wool Marketing Board said, The UK sheep farmers produce 29 million kgs of wool every year and so they are delighted that this campaign has raised the profile of their wool and indeed all wool across the world. We are proud and grateful for The Princes support and patronage and particularly for his attending our annual conference today to speak to the wool producers themselves. We have every faith that this will give wool a new beginning.

John Thorley, Chairman of the CfW, said: The Campaign has succeeded in its early aim of uniting the entire wool industry from farmers to manufacturers and retailers to promote the use of wool. I am delighted that The Prince has devoted time to come and see the textile industry in Bradford and meet key people in both sheep farming and industry, all of whom play such an important part in quality textiles across the world and thank him for his ongoing robust support for The Campaign.

Peter Ackroyd, a representative of Woolmark and Australian Wool Innovation said: The farmers in Australia are delighted  with the very positive results from CfW this season in the UK and look forward to the CfW in 2011 being rolled out into the industrys key markets worldwide

Nicholas Houseman, a Yorkshire based Swaledale sheep farmer, said: The ordinary sheep farmer has witnessed the impact of this campaign and the efforts of HRH The Prince of Wales have proved very significant. We are seeing better prices already; this is good news for us all.

Background

About the Campaign for Wool (CfW)

• A cross industry coalition to raise the profile of real wool as the natural sustainable fibre for fashion and interiors.
• A five year campaign convened by HRH The Prince of Wales
• Launched to the textile trade in January 2010 at Wimpole Hall near Cambridge

Key Funders

• British Wool Marketing Board
• Australian Wool Innovation
• New Zealand Wool Council
• International Wool Textile Organisation
• Viking Wool of Norway
• National Sheep Association

About British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB)

• Represents 50,000 wool producers in the UK
• The BWMB is fully owned by the UK sheep farmers and runs on co-operative principles
• Responsible for collecting, grading, marketing via auction and promoting British Wool to the international textile industry
• 29 million kilos of British Wool was sold in the 2009/10 season

Australian Wool Innovation

• Australian Wool Innovation is a not-for-profit company owned by over 29,000 Australian woolgrowers
• AWI invests in research, development, innovation and marketing along the global supply chain for Australian wool
• AWI own the Woolmark, the most recognised textile symbol in the apparel industry
• To enhance awareness of the natural values of wool, a green stylised version of the Woolmark has been created