Wool-synthetics fight fierce as ever

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 14

Wool-synthetics fight fierce as ever

No let-up in the battle between wool and synthetic fibres is foreseen by the deputy managing director of the International Wool Secretariat (Dr John McPhee). To a meeting of Woolgrowers in Christchurch, he said the battle was as fierce as ever. The secretariat had been watching with concern the emergence of new strategies within the syntheticfibre industry. For a while the emphasis had been on the development of new specialty fibres, which were going to be the high-profit end erf the business. This had been something of an illusion. In many instances these had been an expensive experiment. But increasingly the synthetic-fibre companies in Europe appeared to believe their own future profitability depended on a restructuring of the textile industry, such as had already happened in the United States. Restructuring into bigger units encouraged long production runs, which were more attractive for manmade fibres-. In contrast, wool was a relatively expensive fibre best suited to short production runs, which exploited its great versatility.

Hand-in-hand with this strategy on the part of synthetic-fibre producers, could be expected another big attempt to capture more ground for synthetics from 100 per cent nat-ural-fibre products, both wool and cotton, by means of blends. Again the United States provided the model. There was, as there had been from the beginning, a great deal of talk in the synthetics industry about “optimal blends.” Such a blend, as far as a fibre manufactuer was concerned, was still one that contained the maximum amount of synthetics and the minimum amount of wool. The generally increased emphasis on “wool-poor” blends was not good for wool. A consumer did not buy three suits containing 35 per cent of wool in place of one made of 100 P'r cent wool. Any substantial swing to woolpoor blends would mean a drop in total demand for wool. Similarly, the more wool was diluted in a blend, the more difficult it was for a consumer to appreciate its special properties for the justification for its premium price. Dr McPhee was asked whether in a market such as the United States, where wool consumption

was small, the incorporation of 10 per cent of wool in garments would increase the consumption of wool dramatically. He said that if the secretariat could be sure thatnot less than this amount; of wool was used in such a blend, it would be werrth-while promoting,. but the secretariat felt, that the best use to which it could put its budget was in promoting all wool products, whicn would also help the use of wool in wool-poor blends. While the secretariat' offered technical help to anyone who used wool — even in wool-poor blends — Dr McPhee said that the secretariat thought it would be wrong to bring such blends under its promotion programme. If wool growing were to continue to be profitable,, a continuing big effort would be necessary to' keep wool before the consumer as a fibre with an identity of its own — a modern, fashionable, highquality fibre that was worth a considerable premium over its synthetic competition. To do this,, research and promotion must not diminish, and in fact must increase scope. How to solve thisproblem was one of the most important issues facing the wool industry.