March 13, 2025 • 14 mins
On this week's episode we look into two very different but equally exciting brands working with South Australian wool. Nikki Atkinson designs wedding dresses using fine merino wool, while Silver Fleece dress the Australian Cricket Team among others.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, Hi, I'm Jackie Loom with iHeart Essay, a brand
new show covering all the biggest issues and best stories
from around the regions. This week we're looking into South
Australian fashion labels. Of course, we all know that famous
wedding dress designer Paul Vassilev aka Paolo Sebastian is a
South aussy boy and we love watching him take the
(00:21):
world by storm. But there's a new kid on the
block and she's based in the Flinders. So what do
you get when a coture bridal designer of twenty five
years marries a fine marino wallgrazier a sustainable wall based
luxury wedding dress collection. Of course, Nicki Atkinson is the
founder and designer of horrigx Veil Collections as well as
a recent winner of the Agrifutures Rural Women's Award, and
(00:45):
despite the Wilmington fires getting rather close to her house,
I was able to have a chat.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
With her, so Horricks Collections was a little brain chart
of mine. I've always loved war, so I've been sort
of tinkering with other things with wool for quite some time,
many years, and then one day I just was I
drive home from my shop in Portagusta, and I actually
poured myself a glass of champagne and I thought, you
(01:13):
know what, I actually live on a Marina wall property.
Why have I never thought of doing marina wool wedding dresses?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You think of a bulky sort of cable knit dress
when you think.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Of a wool dress.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Absolutely, it's not that at all, is it.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Absolutely it's not. And you know the funny thing is, Jackie,
that people often say to me until they feel the
fiber this bit themselves, they always say, I can't believe
this is wool, Like I really can't believe this is wall,
because it's actually a woven it's not a knit whatsoever.
I'm playing with a different Marina wall in a different way.
And I think people associate war with a knit automatically.
(01:53):
But if you think of a man's suit or colors
and Patty you walk into color ZM. Patty, she actually
uses wall quite a lot. That's exactly what it is. It's,
you know, that really fine, beautiful drapy fabric. People are
very shocked and very surprised.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, so basically you're telling me that everything we know
about wall is wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Absolutely, absolutely so I'm kind of breaking ground, Like I mean,
I'm the first one in the world to actually produce
wedding dresses out of Marina wall. But the interest has
been just astronomical, absolutely astronomical, And I don't think people
are ready yet just to jump on and say, okay,
let's try a wall. I mean, I do have customers
that have had dresses made in wall, but yeah, most
(02:35):
people are a little bit dubious. But you know what, Jackie,
it's sustainable. It's one hundred percent sustainable, which is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, you've got your name out there right across the world.
Then have you got any interest any buyers from other
sides of the world. You know, where's the furthest customer
you've had?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, my Furtherost customer today, I guess would be cas Mania.
I made Stephanie Trethui's dress when she ms Need the
Agrifutures Award back in twenty twenty three. But as far
as the interest from overseas, there was loads of interest. Like,
you know, I had other designers coming up to me saying,
you're the first in the world to do this, and
(03:13):
I said, yes, I am, and they're like, wow, you
should be in Spain, like, Spain is the place to
be if you want to break into the wedding industry
in a different format. You know, they're the ones that
are willing to take anything new on. And the interesting
thing about Spain is that is where a marino wool
flock started in Australia. Was the first flock came from Spain.
(03:35):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, Okay, I wouldn't have picked Spain as the place
to be for wedding dresses, but you learned something new.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, But yeah, there was loads of interest,
like I had people I've been speaking with a bridal
shop in Paris. They're not ready to take it on
as yet, but I've just been you know, silently plugging
away and just keeping in touch with them, and they,
you know, they love the whole backstory. They love the
backstory of the farm to fashion, which I married quite
(04:05):
well together.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And the key part of your wool creations, of course
is your husband. Have you ever been out on the
land with him? Do you get to go shear the sheep?
For example?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I've never shown a sheep. No, and he probably wouldn't
allow me to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Okay, tools I understand yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But the interesting thing is is this new generation that
coming through. My daughter who's seventeen, she's in there lightly
and trying to do absolutely everything. And I think it's
that generational thing as well. You know, the men. You know,
back in the day, you know, women's place with the
kitchen and the house and things like that. Whereas my
generation we're all working, we're all career women and so forth,
(04:49):
but you weren't seen to be so much. It was
quite unusual for a woman to be working on the land.
But now that's filtering through and it's certainly changed, and
my daughters are in their lights. Flynn, wait to get
on it. But I mean I do go out in
the paddock and obviously I'm the head cook when it
comes to you know, crutching time and cheering and you know,
all of those things, and certainly help out in the
(05:10):
ards with penning them up and whatever needs to be done.
I'm happy to get in there and help when I'm
not busy creating things for my bride.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yes, definitely. So how about then, have you ever thought
of getting in touch with Paul Vassilev, you know, Pallo Sebastian,
big names, big South designers. You can take the world
by storm together.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Oh absolutely absolutely. And you know what, I actually met
him at the twenty twenty two Adelaide Fashion where he
showcased his designs alongside mine and other designers, and I
went and spoke to Paul and it just sort of
said to him, you know, this is what I'm doing,
you know, and he was quite amazed with me working
with Wall and I just chatted to him about how
(05:51):
does his service his clients like in Dubai and overseas
because I was very interested in doing the same, and
he gave me some tips on what he does. So,
you know, with my client in New Zealand, I'm able
to tap into her and be able to get, you know,
his tips where you know, I find really good dressmakers
all around the world and get your customers to tap
into them and then jump on zoom so you're still
(06:13):
in the room with your customer. And I did that
with Steph when I made her dress and she was
in Tasmania, so I never actually met Steph like that
dress was made entirely remotely, So that was really great
to be able to speak to him and just ask
him those tips. So yeah, we have spoken but maybe
I need to, you know, bump into him again and say, hey,
how we do a woolen compllection together? And you know
(06:35):
he does the beating or the beautiful you know, the
gorgeous ballerina for the style with wool.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, that's what I was thinking. You know,
he's got so much intricate you know, little bits of
beating and sequening and all of those sorts of things.
You know, give him one of your bases with the
wall and he can do the little flourishes and you've
got a ensemble that you've made together.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that's right, that's right. And in fact, one of
his employees, Sally, I actually went to college with her,
so I know she's been with Paul for quite some
time and she travels the world with him as well,
so it's not too distant. And he's just such a
lovely man. He's just so beautiful. He's very down to worth,
and I think that's what people have to remember, that
we're all down to worth and we're all human as well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, especially us South Aussies.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Absolutely, absolutely, especially as country girls.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Hey, moving now from the runway to the pitch. We'll
have more coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Idtside Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
We just spoke with Nicki Atkinson, a wedding dress designer
leaning into sustainability with her use of wool. We now
move from the new and innovative to the historical and
another company that uses locally sourced wool from our regions.
Dean Flintoff and his wife Melanie are the current owners
of the Essay brand Silver Fleece. And while you might
be excited to realize you have a school jumper tucked
(07:57):
away in the cupboard with their label on it, I
know I do. Their biggest clients don't just run around
on the school oval at recess and lunch. Instead, they've
kicked the footy on debut at Amy Stadium, walked around
arenas for the opening of the Commonwealth Games, and hit
a six at the g Dean joins us now to
tell us more about the impact Silver Fleece has had
on our state and the country as a whole.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The Ivanovich family started the business in nineteen fifty one
and he was an immigrant. Brought a knitting machine out
with him from Europe and started with one machine. Basically
he was working on the railways here at the time
and then started knitting for customers and it kind of
grew from there. They started doing schools and then sort
(08:41):
of grew that business and then they moved into corporate.
Nineteen seventy eight they approached Cricket Australia to take over
the production of the Australian Cricket team jumpers, which they
then did and they were previously made in England before
that and we've had that contract ever since and Sheffield
Shield teams we do all those around Australia, Australian Team,
(09:02):
the women's teams, probably about another one hundred or so
cricket clubs around Australia do the Cricket Knitz for quite
a lot of schools. That's seventy five schools. I think
that we do some corporate clients and we've got quite
a bit of new business coming in over the next
six or twelve months too, with some machinery that we're
incorporating into the business which will give us more capability
(09:25):
to do some swimwear and active wear and a few
other things.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Right, So how does it all work now? Obviously not
doing the things exactly like they were being done seventy
four years ago, not making them in a shared anymore,
and you've got the new machinery. I'm sure, So how
have things progressed?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I mean, knitting's not really that much different to what
it was originally. There's a bit more technology involved in
the machines certainly look a bit nicer. But this business
has two types of knitting machines. We have what's called
circular knitting machines, which basically knit rolls of fabric for
T shirts and rugby tops and polos and things like that.
And then we have flatbed knitting machines which knit jumpers components.
(10:08):
It will knit the sleeves and the back and the
front and the neck, and then it all gets sewn
together into a garment. We've also got whole garment machines
just arriving next month. She Misaki is the brand, which
is a Japanese state of the art knitting machine. So
whole garment machine basically looks the same as a flatbed machine,
but it has two knit heads inside it, so it's
(10:31):
like three D printing a garment. So the jumper will
come out in one piece basically. And all you have
to do then is so the label on the back and.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You did mention that you service and look after about
seventy five schools and colleges some I know a school
in Port Lincoln. Are there others around the country as well.
You're kind of getting the South Australian brand right across
the country as well that way.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, just every state we have it's mainly colleges these days,
private schools, state schools the more price pointed, so they
can't afford Australian production so much. But there's Queensland, New
South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania. We do quite a bit in Tasmania,
South Australia and Western Australia. I don't think we've got
any customers in Northern Territory. I think it's a bit
(11:14):
warm up there.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, y, not a lot of wool required up that way.
As far as your biggest client of course though, the
Australian cricket team. Like you mentioned before, very few people
would know that the vest and jumpers that our players
are wearing made here in Essay. So that partnership began.
How many years ago did you say, and how did
that start?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Really? It started in nineteen seventy eight and there was
a company called Rowan Jarman at the time and one
of the directors there was involved with Cricket Australia and
also involved in this business and so it started from there.
He approached the Cricket Australia for us to take over
the silver fleece, to take over the production from the
(11:54):
UK and yeah, and the jumpers are identical to what
they were making nineteen seventy eight, so they haven't changed
this back at all. Particular Australia surveyed the players recently
and they've advised us that they're not changing the design
and the players love those jumpers, don't want to change
them and want to keep it going for forever. So
(12:16):
you know, the players work really hard to earn their
baggy green cappa that jumper and they're a bit of
a symbol of being on the Australian team.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
As far as other things that you've made some pretty
outstanding achievements with the Commonwealth Games, the first ever Adelaide
Crows jumper. I'm a Crows fan, so that's pretty exciting.
And the Aussie rowing team, and obviously we greatly value
our Aussie made labels and you know, supporting local, so
these sorts of things having that label on it is
something I assume that you guys pride yourselves on greatly too.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
We do. And you know, we've only just bought this
business in August last year. It was struggling and had
gone into liquidation, but you know, we've recapitalized it and
we're very passionate about Australian production and we believe there's
a niche. It can be difficult to convince people sometimes
because it is more expensive, and you know, China and
other countries are just basically dumping product here and making
(13:09):
it very cheap, which makes it difficult for Australian production.
But there are still some people out there that are
passionate about it and love their Australian jumpers and Australian wool,
Australian cotton. We need to be able to produce our
own clothing. And back in the seventies sixties, there was
over five hundred knitting mills around Australia. Now there's about
(13:30):
six and we're the last one in South Australia and
there's only a couple left in Victoria. There's one in
Queensland which is closing down at the moment, and yeah,
so there's not many left.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You guys, you just said that you saved the brand
last year and you had that aim to get the
production back up to one hundred percent. Are you fully
operational again? Now you're at that one hundred percent operation.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I mean we settled on the business in mid August
and within two weeks it was back up and running
through Business in visuals. All the staff came back. That
a couple of people retired, but pretty much all the
staff came back. So it was shucked for eight or
ten weeks I think it was, but yeah, we came
back in and got it back up and running within days.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's it for this week. Don't forget. You can hear
iHeart Essay in the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'm Jackie Limb. Join us again next week
for more of the stories you want to hear. iHeart
Essay the Voice of South Australia I Heart Essay
Hi, Hi, I'm Jackie Loom with iHeart Essay, a brand
new show covering all the biggest issues and best stories
from around the regions. This week we're looking into South
Australian fashion labels. Of course, we all know that famous
wedding dress designer Paul Vassilev aka Paolo Sebastian is a
South aussy boy and we love watching him take the
(00:21):
world by storm. But there's a new kid on the
block and she's based in the Flinders. So what do
you get when a coture bridal designer of twenty five
years marries a fine marino wallgrazier a sustainable wall based
luxury wedding dress collection. Of course, Nicki Atkinson is the
founder and designer of horrigx Veil Collections as well as
a recent winner of the Agrifutures Rural Women's Award, and
(00:45):
despite the Wilmington fires getting rather close to her house,
I was able to have a chat.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
With her, so Horricks Collections was a little brain chart
of mine. I've always loved war, so I've been sort
of tinkering with other things with wool for quite some time,
many years, and then one day I just was I
drive home from my shop in Portagusta, and I actually
poured myself a glass of champagne and I thought, you
(01:13):
know what, I actually live on a Marina wall property.
Why have I never thought of doing marina wool wedding dresses?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You think of a bulky sort of cable knit dress
when you think.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Of a wool dress.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Absolutely, it's not that at all, is it.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Absolutely it's not. And you know the funny thing is, Jackie,
that people often say to me until they feel the
fiber this bit themselves, they always say, I can't believe
this is wool, Like I really can't believe this is wall,
because it's actually a woven it's not a knit whatsoever.
I'm playing with a different Marina wall in a different way.
And I think people associate war with a knit automatically.
(01:53):
But if you think of a man's suit or colors
and Patty you walk into color ZM. Patty, she actually
uses wall quite a lot. That's exactly what it is. It's,
you know, that really fine, beautiful drapy fabric. People are
very shocked and very surprised.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, so basically you're telling me that everything we know
about wall is wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Absolutely, absolutely so I'm kind of breaking ground, Like I mean,
I'm the first one in the world to actually produce
wedding dresses out of Marina wall. But the interest has
been just astronomical, absolutely astronomical, And I don't think people
are ready yet just to jump on and say, okay,
let's try a wall. I mean, I do have customers
that have had dresses made in wall, but yeah, most
(02:35):
people are a little bit dubious. But you know what, Jackie,
it's sustainable. It's one hundred percent sustainable, which is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah, you've got your name out there right across the world.
Then have you got any interest any buyers from other
sides of the world. You know, where's the furthest customer
you've had?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, my Furtherost customer today, I guess would be cas Mania.
I made Stephanie Trethui's dress when she ms Need the
Agrifutures Award back in twenty twenty three. But as far
as the interest from overseas, there was loads of interest. Like,
you know, I had other designers coming up to me saying,
you're the first in the world to do this, and
(03:13):
I said, yes, I am, and they're like, wow, you
should be in Spain, like, Spain is the place to
be if you want to break into the wedding industry
in a different format. You know, they're the ones that
are willing to take anything new on. And the interesting
thing about Spain is that is where a marino wool
flock started in Australia. Was the first flock came from Spain.
(03:35):
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wow, Okay, I wouldn't have picked Spain as the place
to be for wedding dresses, but you learned something new.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, But yeah, there was loads of interest,
like I had people I've been speaking with a bridal
shop in Paris. They're not ready to take it on
as yet, but I've just been you know, silently plugging
away and just keeping in touch with them, and they,
you know, they love the whole backstory. They love the
backstory of the farm to fashion, which I married quite
(04:05):
well together.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And the key part of your wool creations, of course
is your husband. Have you ever been out on the
land with him? Do you get to go shear the sheep?
For example?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
I've never shown a sheep. No, and he probably wouldn't
allow me to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Okay, tools I understand yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But the interesting thing is is this new generation that
coming through. My daughter who's seventeen, she's in there lightly
and trying to do absolutely everything. And I think it's
that generational thing as well. You know, the men. You know,
back in the day, you know, women's place with the
kitchen and the house and things like that. Whereas my
generation we're all working, we're all career women and so forth,
(04:49):
but you weren't seen to be so much. It was
quite unusual for a woman to be working on the land.
But now that's filtering through and it's certainly changed, and
my daughters are in their lights. Flynn, wait to get
on it. But I mean I do go out in
the paddock and obviously I'm the head cook when it
comes to you know, crutching time and cheering and you know,
all of those things, and certainly help out in the
(05:10):
ards with penning them up and whatever needs to be done.
I'm happy to get in there and help when I'm
not busy creating things for my bride.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yes, definitely. So how about then, have you ever thought
of getting in touch with Paul Vassilev, you know, Pallo Sebastian,
big names, big South designers. You can take the world
by storm together.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Oh absolutely absolutely. And you know what, I actually met
him at the twenty twenty two Adelaide Fashion where he
showcased his designs alongside mine and other designers, and I
went and spoke to Paul and it just sort of
said to him, you know, this is what I'm doing,
you know, and he was quite amazed with me working
with Wall and I just chatted to him about how
(05:51):
does his service his clients like in Dubai and overseas
because I was very interested in doing the same, and
he gave me some tips on what he does. So,
you know, with my client in New Zealand, I'm able
to tap into her and be able to get, you know,
his tips where you know, I find really good dressmakers
all around the world and get your customers to tap
into them and then jump on zoom so you're still
(06:13):
in the room with your customer. And I did that
with Steph when I made her dress and she was
in Tasmania, so I never actually met Steph like that
dress was made entirely remotely, So that was really great
to be able to speak to him and just ask
him those tips. So yeah, we have spoken but maybe
I need to, you know, bump into him again and say, hey,
how we do a woolen compllection together? And you know
(06:35):
he does the beating or the beautiful you know, the
gorgeous ballerina for the style with wool.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, that's what I was thinking. You know,
he's got so much intricate you know, little bits of
beating and sequening and all of those sorts of things.
You know, give him one of your bases with the
wall and he can do the little flourishes and you've
got a ensemble that you've made together.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that's right, that's right. And in fact, one of
his employees, Sally, I actually went to college with her,
so I know she's been with Paul for quite some
time and she travels the world with him as well,
so it's not too distant. And he's just such a
lovely man. He's just so beautiful. He's very down to worth,
and I think that's what people have to remember, that
we're all down to worth and we're all human as well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, especially us South Aussies.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Absolutely, absolutely, especially as country girls.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Hey, moving now from the runway to the pitch. We'll
have more coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Idtside Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
We just spoke with Nicki Atkinson, a wedding dress designer
leaning into sustainability with her use of wool. We now
move from the new and innovative to the historical and
another company that uses locally sourced wool from our regions.
Dean Flintoff and his wife Melanie are the current owners
of the Essay brand Silver Fleece. And while you might
be excited to realize you have a school jumper tucked
(07:57):
away in the cupboard with their label on it, I
know I do. Their biggest clients don't just run around
on the school oval at recess and lunch. Instead, they've
kicked the footy on debut at Amy Stadium, walked around
arenas for the opening of the Commonwealth Games, and hit
a six at the g Dean joins us now to
tell us more about the impact Silver Fleece has had
on our state and the country as a whole.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The Ivanovich family started the business in nineteen fifty one
and he was an immigrant. Brought a knitting machine out
with him from Europe and started with one machine. Basically
he was working on the railways here at the time
and then started knitting for customers and it kind of
grew from there. They started doing schools and then sort
(08:41):
of grew that business and then they moved into corporate.
Nineteen seventy eight they approached Cricket Australia to take over
the production of the Australian Cricket team jumpers, which they
then did and they were previously made in England before
that and we've had that contract ever since and Sheffield
Shield teams we do all those around Australia, Australian Team,
(09:02):
the women's teams, probably about another one hundred or so
cricket clubs around Australia do the Cricket Knitz for quite
a lot of schools. That's seventy five schools. I think
that we do some corporate clients and we've got quite
a bit of new business coming in over the next
six or twelve months too, with some machinery that we're
incorporating into the business which will give us more capability
(09:25):
to do some swimwear and active wear and a few
other things.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Right, So how does it all work now? Obviously not
doing the things exactly like they were being done seventy
four years ago, not making them in a shared anymore,
and you've got the new machinery. I'm sure, So how
have things progressed?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I mean, knitting's not really that much different to what
it was originally. There's a bit more technology involved in
the machines certainly look a bit nicer. But this business
has two types of knitting machines. We have what's called
circular knitting machines, which basically knit rolls of fabric for
T shirts and rugby tops and polos and things like that.
And then we have flatbed knitting machines which knit jumpers components.
(10:08):
It will knit the sleeves and the back and the
front and the neck, and then it all gets sewn
together into a garment. We've also got whole garment machines
just arriving next month. She Misaki is the brand, which
is a Japanese state of the art knitting machine. So
whole garment machine basically looks the same as a flatbed machine,
but it has two knit heads inside it, so it's
(10:31):
like three D printing a garment. So the jumper will
come out in one piece basically. And all you have
to do then is so the label on the back and.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
You did mention that you service and look after about
seventy five schools and colleges some I know a school
in Port Lincoln. Are there others around the country as well.
You're kind of getting the South Australian brand right across
the country as well that way.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, just every state we have it's mainly colleges these days,
private schools, state schools the more price pointed, so they
can't afford Australian production so much. But there's Queensland, New
South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania. We do quite a bit in Tasmania,
South Australia and Western Australia. I don't think we've got
any customers in Northern Territory. I think it's a bit
(11:14):
warm up there.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, y, not a lot of wool required up that way.
As far as your biggest client of course though, the
Australian cricket team. Like you mentioned before, very few people
would know that the vest and jumpers that our players
are wearing made here in Essay. So that partnership began.
How many years ago did you say, and how did
that start?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Really? It started in nineteen seventy eight and there was
a company called Rowan Jarman at the time and one
of the directors there was involved with Cricket Australia and
also involved in this business and so it started from there.
He approached the Cricket Australia for us to take over
the silver fleece, to take over the production from the
(11:54):
UK and yeah, and the jumpers are identical to what
they were making nineteen seventy eight, so they haven't changed
this back at all. Particular Australia surveyed the players recently
and they've advised us that they're not changing the design
and the players love those jumpers, don't want to change
them and want to keep it going for forever. So
(12:16):
you know, the players work really hard to earn their
baggy green cappa that jumper and they're a bit of
a symbol of being on the Australian team.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
As far as other things that you've made some pretty
outstanding achievements with the Commonwealth Games, the first ever Adelaide
Crows jumper. I'm a Crows fan, so that's pretty exciting.
And the Aussie rowing team, and obviously we greatly value
our Aussie made labels and you know, supporting local, so
these sorts of things having that label on it is
something I assume that you guys pride yourselves on greatly too.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
We do. And you know, we've only just bought this
business in August last year. It was struggling and had
gone into liquidation, but you know, we've recapitalized it and
we're very passionate about Australian production and we believe there's
a niche. It can be difficult to convince people sometimes
because it is more expensive, and you know, China and
other countries are just basically dumping product here and making
(13:09):
it very cheap, which makes it difficult for Australian production.
But there are still some people out there that are
passionate about it and love their Australian jumpers and Australian wool,
Australian cotton. We need to be able to produce our
own clothing. And back in the seventies sixties, there was
over five hundred knitting mills around Australia. Now there's about
(13:30):
six and we're the last one in South Australia and
there's only a couple left in Victoria. There's one in
Queensland which is closing down at the moment, and yeah,
so there's not many left.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You guys, you just said that you saved the brand
last year and you had that aim to get the
production back up to one hundred percent. Are you fully
operational again? Now you're at that one hundred percent operation.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I mean we settled on the business in mid August
and within two weeks it was back up and running
through Business in visuals. All the staff came back. That
a couple of people retired, but pretty much all the
staff came back. So it was shucked for eight or
ten weeks I think it was, but yeah, we came
back in and got it back up and running within days.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
That's it for this week. Don't forget. You can hear
iHeart Essay in the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'm Jackie Limb. Join us again next week
for more of the stories you want to hear. iHeart
Essay the Voice of South Australia I Heart Essay
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com