The first target market is America because that is where 45% of the world’s carpet manufacturing capability is.
SWAG chief executive Andy Caughey says a nine-week project commissioned with San Francisco-based design-led company IDEO is on track for presentation to the SWAG board early next month.
“This is about consumer insight and there are some big trends happening in America,” Caughey said.
Covid has changed the perception of how people live and with more people working from home, the rise of Zoom towns in the US, and growing consciousness worldwide of environmental credentials of products, are all trends SWAG is hinging on as potential opportunities.
“The plan is to uncover consumers’ pain points and develop a solution in a strong wool demand-driven strategy,” he said.
“While we are currently exporting strong wool overseas, we don’t have a clear understanding of which companies and end products the wool is going into.
“We need to understand the value chain our strong wool takes, and importantly get into the heads and minds of modern consumers so we know what they want and anticipate their requirements into the future.”
The focus has been whittled down to three key project opportunities – global potential, more volume and increased value.
“IDEO is completing a report around the key criteria of these three projects; this report is due by the end of March and will be presented to the SWAG board in April,” he said.
“We will then provide open engagement for people to participate in.”
Caughey acknowledged that IDEO, while part of the process, will not work for everyone.
“There are emerging brands and ideas coming out of NZ and we recognise that, and they will have the opportunity to work with SWAG,” he said.
“We can’t support everyone – there is limited resources and limited time.
“We will go through the process to determine what other companies we can work with to build an investment case for them.”
“The critical component of IDEO is what we do for the greatest good for all as we identify the best and most suitable projects for investment funding.”
SWAG is not an industry good organisation.
“But we are here to do the industry good,” he said.
Funding is not a hurdle with SWAG’s budget of $3.5 million, including strong government support on top of $750,000 from a cross section of industry bodies and companies.
Brands will be the key to disrupt categories, such as Allbirds disrupting the sport shoe category, and repositioning wool in the minds of consumers.
“We need to build brands and work with brands who can be ambassadors for NZ strong wool,” he said.
“It is fascinating what people are doing with strong wool, there is no single solution.
“We want to help build a pathway for these budding entrepreneurs to give them skills and resources to bring these products to market.”
“We are creating a pathway to accelerate a route to market that we can execute with a high degree of confidence.”
Come July-August, SWAG will be pitching to the Government, and other entities that may have an interest in investing.
It might be a start-up, joint venture or a collaboration with an existing company in NZ.
By the end of the year, the intention is to have at least four companies invested with funding to launch in the marketplace.
SWAG is also active in building an accreditation platform for strong wool and workforce capability to help encourage the industry to ensure it has the capacity to train sufficient wool graders and shearers for the future.
Before SWAG runs its time at the end of this year, the aim is to have in place enduring industry structures that will support the industry in the future.
Currently there is no single entity providing direction or encouraging cooperation.
“We will look at industry structures to represent all interests of the wool industry,” he said.
“That may not be a single entity, but by the end of the year we will identify what it will be.”
