Many new outlets use little wool

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 20

Many new outlets use little wool

Finding new outlets for wool, and re-establishing old ones are among the aims of Mr Lou Mizell, manager for new market outlets for the International Wool Secretariat Mr Mizell, at present visiting Canterbury, said that there was no single product in those outside the mainstream of products in which wool was used which consumed big quantities of wool — it was rather a case of wool being used in smaller quantities in a wide range of products.

In the United States of 600 million pounds of fibre used in unconventional products, wool held about II per cent or 12 per • cent of the consumption, which was a higher percentage than in conventional products

where the share of wool was about 2 per cent. In these special products wool was also used more for its special virtues or qualities than in many of the conventional uses. < Mr Mizell said that where once no wool had been used in pile fabrics it had been up to 6M or 7M lb, and some 2M lb had been used in quilted products, which had not been used before. One former outlet for wool where the natural fibre was now recovering lost ground was its use as a wick for conveying oil in the lubrication of journal bearings in freight cars, trolley cars, and water-pumps. At last, he said, engineers had been convinced that they should use good worsted virgin - wool

yams, for which' users were prepared to pay more than $5 per pound. For the reason that it was a case of many small outlets rather than a fewbig ones, Mr Mizell said that he believed in having many projects under investigation, and for that reason he had sometimes been criticised for being “rather thin on the ground.” One thing that he had learned was that it was easier to develop new products than to sell them. He would talk about his philosophy of new product development and introduction to the annual conference of the New Zealand section of the Textile Institute.