Thursday, March 28, 2024

Wool carpet man takes on synthetics

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Glenn Wilcock has a lifetime experience in the carpet industry and believes in wool so much he sells nothing else. And he has developed a business model aimed at keeping prices down. He tells Tim Fulton how he does it.
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Glenn Wilcock has been making carpets for so long starting his own retail business was almost as natural as woollen fleece.

Just as naturally, his enterprise is based in the old mill town of Kaiapoi, where wool and sheep meat kept the community in clover for well over 100 years.

As the sole operator of Carpet Online Wilcock is embracing the apparent madness of direct-selling woollen floor cover in a retail industry dominated by synthetics.

His converted home garage is a display room and his only major concession to big industry is a rented warehouse in Christchurch and regular travel to maintain contacts in Australia, Asia and Turkey.

He has a stylised sheep on his front fence, advertising on the side of his prized Daimler and uses social media and a website, www.carpetonline.co.nz 

He competes in a world of giants, all the more so because he sells only woollen carpets.

A friend in New Zealand carpet retail chided him for the wool-only approach. 

“He said ‘you’re concentrating on 8% of the market. You need to get some synthetics’.”

Wilcock, who doubles as a carpet manufacturing consultant, was having none of it. 

The true madness he sees is New Zealanders – famous for sheep farming – sloping into retail showrooms with a hankering for wool but leaving with an oil derivative.

Synthetic marketers have pushed wool to the back of the showroom and the only way to make it front-and-centre is to sell carpet direct to the customers, he said. 

“People want wool but they’re pushed away from it.”

One of the reasons that happened was that historically the only carpet manufacturers with the power to retail wool carpet relied more on synthetic sales. 

Wilcock understands the difficulty for manufacturers and retailers but does not believe trying to sell woollen carpet and synthetics simultaneously would end well for him or for farmers.

Wilcock spent 20 years with a Christchurch yarnmaker now run by the Carrfields group. 

Two years ago, after helping the business start afresh under the new owner, he set forth on his own venture.

The native Englishman started in the wool trade as a 16-year-old and learned about manufacturing, distribution and marketing. 

He has seen up-close why carpet-makers and customers opt for synthetics: wool can be fragile and requires extra human handling. Wool’s a natural product so it’s variable. 

“You can do so much as a spinner to eliminate that – and we do – but it’s not so strong. If you put a synthetic product to a manufacturer they can do three times the production than you can do with a wool yarn. No matter how good you get your wool yarn, it’s going to beat that.”

Carpet Online sources woollen carpet from Turkey, where Wilcock does consultancy, and also has it made in New Zealand by a manufacturer earning most of its income from synthetics.  

Selling direct to customers online isn’t original but Wilcock is determined to find a niche right here at home. 

His mate in the carpet trade tells him “Glenn, if you can figure out how to sell wool to New Zealanders, you’ll make a fortune”.

If he had a notional customer it would be a Mrs Jones who browses the company website or spots the Daimler purring around town.

With any luck she will find a deal, courtesy of his procurement and retail model. 

“Price-wise, you go to a retail store and it’s 50% (more) on a carpet straight away. 

“Here, I’m running out of a garage and I’ve got a warehouse in Christchurch that I rent.”

He tries to keep costs down. He bought the Daimler 14 years ago and has long-since paid it off. Most of the company’s advertising budget is on the side of the car.

Wilcock also stocks only lines and colours he believes most customers want. 

“If I haven’t got it available I don’t sell it, simple as that.”

Despite appearing to be a one-man operator, he is confident about securing any off-the-shelf requirements without undue drama. 

“It’s not a problem. I could get it specially made. I’ve got all the contacts.”

It comes down to selling “bloody good product”, he said.

Prices and product

Carpet Online sells wool carpets 35oz and upwards

It sells Loops and Europe twist for $95/lineal metre at 4m wide ($24 m2)

Some synthetic carpet at a lower weight sells for $100/lineal metre

New Zealand is a twist pile, heavy duty market

The premium range is 45oz for NZ wool

It sells for $125/lineal metre 3.65 wide ($34 m2) compared to a similar wool carpet in a retail shop at more than $200/lineal metre.

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