A GREAT YARN
How the mohair industry got its mojo back
DENYS Hobson was once touted as the best leg-spinner South Africa ever produced. These days, he is into a different kind of spinning — he plays right through the product chain in mohair, from farming to retail.
“There’s a lot you can do with mohair, including knitting yarns, weaving blankets and making accessories. As always in fashion, it’s all about colours,” the former cricketer said.
“At the lower end, socks, which are not usually marketed as fashion, can be blended and priced lower. You can get into sports apparel — compression garments with synthetic fibres have become popular, but mohair at the foot of a compression sock can prevent odour.”
He said there were applications for outdoor, formal, women’s and even medical items. “Medical is our biggest market right now. We sell a sock for diabetics through pharmacies.”
Hobson has been in the industry since 1991 and now exports to both the UK and Scandinavia.
“There’s massive potential and a wide-open market. Manufacturers are established and R&D is ongoing. We’re experienced now — we test the products on the local market before exporting. The rand’s movements are also doing us a favour at the moment.”
He said mohair was virtually unknown 20 years ago. And when it was mentioned, it was said to scratch. It is an image problem that Hobson said mohair was just beginning to overcome.
The key is customer experience. Hobson said Mohair South Africa was helping with marketing and brand awareness, which is expensive.
“It has become better known, but we had to fight that perception. Mohair South Africa is now going about its job in the right way. We had 17 rocky years while they refused to brag about our product. They didn’t know how to promote it. What they’re doing now is promoting it through the product itself, handing out items for people to touch and use.”
Hobson said Mohair South Africa was assisting with research and development and opening up new markets. “Free socks help us. There’s a big market waiting.”
What Hobson wants is a chance to tell the mohair story.
“Fake products do the rounds, and synthetic-fibre makers are clever. But in some applications we cannot be matched,” he said.
One of Hobson’s products is flameretardant socks for the mining industry. He said he had once taken a pair of cheaper synthetic socks and set them on fire in a demonstration for mining company executives.
“It showed they don’t work, while I could hold the match under the mohair socks. That’s what I mean by promoting using the product.”
Hobson said emerging farmers were producing good quality mohair, but added: “Black farmers have been given farms, but sometimes too many are put on one farm. Buyers try to support them at good prices.”
Beneficiation is another chance to spread the wealth.
“Historically, 95% of our mohair has been exported, and about 11% of that is beneficiated locally. More machines [would] mean more employment,” Hobson said.