Tracey Topp started the Cosy Toes children’s Merino sock range on a kitchen table at Rotherham, North Canterbury, more than 10 years ago.
Recently she branched into bigger sizes for adults and a variety of tights, blankets and clothing.
Topp grew up on a sheep farm at Summerhill, in the Canterbury foothills near Oxford. She still soaks in the smell and the memory of lanolin, tossing fleeces and the banter of the boards.
A Kiwi company makes Cosy Toes’ socks but it took years of hard work to build business credibility.
Fabricators wanted consistent wool supply, including minimum wool weight for dyeing.
“You can’t just say ‘I want a pair of socks, purple’,” she said.
It was hard to find and keep a New Zealand supplier so she kept some commercial secrets, like her supply contracts.
“I’m pretty protective of my brand. I don’t tell anybody where I get my product.”
She was also sharing her love of wool in another way, through a non-profit Facebook group, We Love NZ Wool. The group was a home for positive comment about wool’s place in rural NZ.
It would be easy for her to complain about how hard it had been to find NZ manufacturers. But We Love NZ Wool had about 450 members trying to stay positive.
In Marlborough Hayley Rhind was also using NZ wool and local fabricators as much as she could.
Rhind and husband Matt were sheep and beef farmers at Beneagle Farm near Blenheim.
It had been non-stop lately with a young family, farming and building the White Chalk label, which was sold in about 30 stores nationally and online.
An overriding goal had been to create an all-round NZ business with a local supply chain.
“It didn’t sit well that that the product was being made overseas and that a NZ business couldn’t support NZ jobs,” she said.
She was making strides on that front with a two-person sales team servicing stores around the country.
For the first two years of its life White Chalk was stitched together in Vietnam. It was a natural option with Rhind’s Vietnamese sister in law, Ginny, overseeing quality control and drawing on her experience as an owner of a clothing store in Saigon.
This year Ginny and husband Nathan decided to move to NZ so it was time to kick an all-Kiwi plan into action.
In Blenheim she found manufacturers Forward Fashion and on August 29 White Chalk would open its own store in Blenheim in premises big enough for distribution, offices and shop floor.
Back home Beneagle Farm ran halfbreds and a trial flock of Merinos. The fleece was sold to a third party but Matt and Hayley planned to crossbreed for a finer wool line devoted to White Chalk apparel.
East of Christchurch, on Banks Peninsula, farmers Carl and Tori Uren were making about 50 Merino jerseys a day for 100 New Zealand schools, clubs and businesses.
Their South Island Merino wool went overseas to be turned into rolls of fabric before being shipped back to Christchurch. Their Merino Wool for School scheme kept two local women making jerseys through the winter, Carl Uren said.
It was also keeping kids warm, including the Uren’s four children who inspired the business.
It was a juggle farming and keeping up with jersey demand but the business was becoming easier with repeat customers, Uren said.
MORE:
https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/section/sheep-2/view/uniform-approach-to-wool-pays-off
