Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Bremworth reversing their wool carpet only policy

Carpet maker Bremworth has reversed its wool only policy - and will soon start making synthetic carpets again.

The NZX-listed company, which stopped producing synthetic carpets in 2020 in favour of a wool-only policy, will restart production of synthetic carpets at its Auckland facility in the next financial year.

The Country's Jamie Mackay unpacked the market reactions to this.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With us right now? Is Jamie Mackay, Host of the Country.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hey Jamie Evening, have it now?

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What did you make of Bremworth deciding to do the
synthetic carpets again.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, it hasn't probably gone down well with some farmers,
but I think if you look at it from a distance,
it's probably a pragmatic decision. So they've reversed their wall
only policy and they're now going to start making synthetic
carpets as well. Now. They stopped producing synthetic carpets back
in twenty twenty in favor of the wall only policy.

(00:30):
But there's been a recent shakeup on the board. You
might remember that Rob Hewitt, the new chair, ditched the
old board. He's the chair of Everything in New Zealand,
formerly Silver Firm, Farms and Farmlands. But he did it
off the back of falling revenue. The chief executive, by
the way, he was a victim. He stepped down recently
after four years. Agoy by the name of Greg Smith.

(00:51):
So revenue fell from one hundred and fifty million to
eighty million in the space of six years. I guess
they had to do something that the Hewitt said. The
decision to stop selling synthetic carpets in favor of wool
only products had not resulted in improved sales, while operating
costs had still remained high. He said not having synthetics

(01:13):
in their portfolio actually made things more difficult because their
customers wanted to sample both synthetics and wool and they,
says said, we need to spread our costs across the
wider base, and our customers are clearly looking for a
synthetic product, okay. And he also said having a complete
portfolio ie synthetics and wool will actually help them grow

(01:35):
their wall product sales. I hope so. Our Federated Farmers
not surprisingly Meet and Wool chair Toby Williams said the
wool industry was teating teetering and this would be another
knock for farmer confidence. He said it was disappointing but understandable.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I mean, because it's market reality, isn't it. But
how embarrassing for Bremworth because remember that campaign that they launched.
It was just so harsh about synthetic carpets and now
they're doing them again.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
A bit of a backflip. I mean everyone's doing these days.
Look at Trump and his tariffs. Heather but look the
reality of it is, as much as we want to
use wall carpets and the government have been a champion
of that in there in their buildings, some people don't
want wall carpets. They want the cheaper synthetic option, which
may have some advantages. In an ideal world, we would

(02:22):
all we would, we would all choose wall carpets, but
ultimately the market will decide.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, brilliant, Jamie. It's good to talk to you as always,
talk to you in a couple of days. Jimmie McKay
hosts of the Country.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
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