The Australian Wool Services' (AWS) early stage processing business, ANDAR, has signalled its intent to strategically diversify both within and outside the wool industry. ANDAR is renowned in the global wool textile industry for its development of technology for early stage processing of wool, mainly scouring. The company's flagship product is the low entanglement scour used by BWK in Bremen, Germany.
“As the demand for scouring equipment decreases, ANDAR has looked to other fibres to leverage the technology it has developed to process wool,” explains ANDAR's Managing Director, James Irvine.
“While our first love is naturally wool, we have had to diversify in order to protect the future value of the company for AWS shareholders.” A New Zealand-based business, ANDAR was acquired by AWS in 2002. The business is 60 years old, comprises 30 percent of AWS turnover and employs 30 percent of the total AWS staff.
“To be successful in the top end of the market wool needs to have the feel and handle of cashmere, wear like cotton and have the colours of silk,” says James Irvine. “This does not happen as it comes off the sheep. There are technologies that give wool many of these properties and it is in this area that ANDAR and AWS have chosen to focus.”
ANDAR's Advanced Fibre Group has the role of taking science to market. Successes in wool innovation include:
Basolan: 9 machines, 8 million kg of wool being processed in China; Optim: 6machines, 1.2million kg of wool being processed;
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