Wool’s Battle In Carpet Market

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 11

Wool’s Battle In Carpet Market

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, June 2.

New Zealand wool-growers have a substantial interest in the effort being made by the International Wool Secretariat to have Woolmark carpet production stepped up significantly throughout Britain and Europe by both tufted and conventional weave manufacturers.

The secretariat’s carpetmarketing officers' from nine countries are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss plans for a full scale effort to give wool a leading position over synthetic fibres in the rapidlyexpanding markets of this car-pet-hungry part of the world. New Zealand, which produces something like 25 per cent of the Western world’s carpet-type woods, has a big stake in the fortunes of its product.

The outcome of the I.W.S. carpet drive in Europe would seem particularly important for New Zealand’s growers. They are not so well situated as it might appear to reap the reward of the rising prosperity of Europe, which is stimulating the demand for carpets. Wool is in a strong position in the traditional woven sector of the industry, which accounts for about two-thirds of the current carpet output in Europe. But this is only part of the picture. The disturbing aspect for wool is that Europe’s expanding carpet production is moving increasingly into tufted manufacture because of the tufted plant’s capacity for greatly increasing output—and tufted plants at present are geared mostly to synthetics.

The International Wool Secretariat believes it has been successful in getting Woolmark carpets produced by some of Europe’s tufted manufacturers, but wool needs a much greater foothold to be assured of its share of the growth in this sector. Also casting a shadow is the likelihood of American moves into Europe, where synthetic producers are now rapidly increasing their butput and intensive competition is developing. In the United States, the

tufted manufacturers have an 84 per cent grip on the market, and the great proportion of their output is in synthetic fibres.

In this situation, the urgent task of the I.W.S. is seen to be to get wool firmly established in the tufted side of the European market. To do this, its carpet manufacturing men must convince manufacturers it is in their interests to produce in wool to meet the consumer demand already established for Woolmark carpets. They must also persuade retailers to promote them.