Driving collaboration and innovation: Insights from our first non-woven workshop.

A group of highly engaged non-woven manufacturing brands coalesced in Christchurch at the end of July to explore opportunities for collaboration in manufacturing, human resources, product development, and market strategies. These brands have strong aspirations to develop the sector – its on-shore manufacturing, its connectivity and returns to growers, and its ability to provide products that are highly market relevant. Here’s a more in-depth look at some of the outputs:

Collaboration is Crucial: Being open to leveraging relationships with international Research and Development partners will improve speed to market and the local knowledge base in the short term. However, there’s an opportunity to position New Zealand globally as experts as the revenue from non-woven products grows and more of the production and innovation capability is built here. A capability map and needs assessment will be built through 1:1 interviews with participants in the group to best understand opportunities for building collective capability.

Growth Potential: Non-woven production in New Zealand holds considerable potential for better returns to wool growers and increasing the value retained within New Zealand, diversifying the wool sector’s reliance on flooring.

Urgency is Key: There was a strong sense of urgency among participants, with an emphasis on the need for swift action to capitalise on emerging opportunities.

Export Focus: There was a robust discussion on the importance of developing more precise export strategies, particularly in markets like India and United States where demand for New Zealand wool is rising.

Sustainability and Innovation: The future success of the industry will depend on adopting new technologies and practices that align with global standards, ensuring New Zealand wool not only remains relevant but also leads in sustainable production.

Next steps for Wool Impact are to continue our work building relationships with global specifiers, develop a picture of the international product development and prototyping eco-system and provide a capability framework to help brands plot their pilot and commercialisation pathway.

If you are a brand or organisation looking at a wool innovation in the non-woven sector please reach out to our Navigator, Anna, at navigator@woolimpact.com. We’d love to hear from you!