Textiles attract premium

HEIGHTENED interest in premium Australian-made products has Geelong Textiles developing markets for its high-quality woven fabrics.

New contracts to supply high-end fashion designs featuring superfine Merino wool and possibilities opening in Asia are among the diversification prospects for one of the textile industry’s great survivors.

Ninety per cent of the almost 50-year-old Newtown business remains in supplying to the upholstery industry.

However, mill manager James Zhou said there had been an encouraging return to Australian-made 100 per cent woollen products, which was reversing the downward trend of textiles industries over previous decades.

“I’ve been in the industry for 30 years,” Mr Zhou said. “I believe it seems like it is coming back. People are not just looking for the cheaper synthetic materials, they are looking for quality fabrics, which is good for us.”

The locally owned company, which last year won the contract to supply to the makers of Australian cricket’s “baggy green” cap, is understood to be the last of its kind in the country.

Much of its business is in contract manufacture for wholesalers of commercial office and transport seating but it also produces woollen fabrics for school uniforms and corporate apparel.

Director Quentin VahlMeyer said Geelong Textiles had started venturing into high-end fashion with designers of superfine woollen shirts and suits.

“We offer a premium product with a background that is certified,” Mr VahlMeyer said.

He said weaving was the easy part of the process, it was sourcing the yarns producing a quality finish that took a lot of expertise.

“A lot of people are coming back to Australian and Australian-made, and they will pay a premium for it,” Mr Vahl-Meyer said. “People overseas will pay a premium as well.”

Mr Zhou is keen for the company to explore collaborative efforts in the developing Asian countries where there has been a trend from traditional synthetic products towards high-quality fabrics.

“With the development of these countries . . . they start to think about using high-class upholstery, furniture and interior textiles,” he said.

The mill manager said research showed businesses in these countries typically turned to European suppliers but there was great opportunity for those fabrics to be supplied from Australia.

Geelong Textiles has extensively modernised its equipment in recent years and in 2012 it bought Geelong Dyeing, in Breakwater, to vertically integrate a key part of the supply chain.

A challenge, however, is regenerating an ageing workforce with most of its employees having decades of experience but their skills needed to be passed down.

Mr Zhou said the special skills required in the industry were peculiar to it and the company was finding it difficult to find people with appropriate talent and interest to come on-board.

Based in the original Geelong Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Woollen Mills, Geelong Textiles employs 12 people.

“A lot of people are coming back to Australian and Australian made and they will pay a premium for it.” QUENTIN VAHL- MEYER