By BRETT TINDAL
A life-long passion for Corriedale wool has been spun into reality at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo.
Sixty years of dedicated breeding culminated in a launch of a branded Roseville Corriedale wool blanket and yarn line, named after the stud in Kingsvale, near Young, where it all began.
Bendigo Woollen Mills launched the Roseville Corriedale brand at their Bendigo headquarters, with a showcase of the blankets and yarn produced from the Roseville Corriedale wool, in front of a packed gallery of yarn enthusiasts, industry leaders, media podcasters and wool lovers.
The project started when Corriedale breeder Tony Manchester sold wool through traditional wool sales with the help of David Quirk of Jemalong Wool and it was snapped up at a premium, starting a wider conversation with the GS Schneider group on how good the quality of the product was.
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Unbeknown to Mr Manchester, Bendigo Woollen Mill managing director Colin Walker had given a directive to the team at GS Schneider two years ago to find him a high quality 'Single Origin Wool', they could take to market and put a story behind.
That wool was that of Mr Manchester and after many discussions and help through his agent Mr Quirk, they put together a 20 tonne shipping container of greasy Roseville blood Corriedale wool, between himself and Galore based commercial breeder Jeoff Lane and sent it off to China for processing.
That product took between six to nine months to be processed.
It returned to Australian shores and was put to work in processing a line of high-price point and quality woollen blankets and yarn for the Australian market.
Mr Walker said they wanted quality wool to make a really nice product from, but something that had a story behind it.
"Our customers love knowing the origin of the product and where it came from, and we have been able to tell that story extremely well with Tony and his family," he said.
"It was extremely rare that we would buy a container of wool that wasn't Merino.
“The use of the Roseville Corriedale wool in this context is really unique, as I strongly believe it easily outperforms Merino wool and gives us a unique opportunity to leverage the fact there is no other product like it on the market”.
Mr Walker said he usually sees a lot of numbers come across his desk on the wools they buy.
But when he saw the numbers on the Corriedale wool at 23-25 micron, with the softness, style and amount of wool in each fleece, he knew this was the product he had been searching for.
“The style of each wool type is what you have to work with in our business and this wool is the best I have ever seen and I truly mean that," Mr Walker said.
“I knew instantly it would run really well and this was an exciting product for us to build a brand around."
Mr Manchester has bred Corriedales for 60 years and has worked hard with his background in abattoirs and processing on getting meat and shape into his Corriedale flock.
“We have worked hard on the meat side and created a lamb that hits the specs 75 per cent of the time at top quality brands like Gundagai Lamb," Mr Manchester said.
“Off the back of getting my sheep right, we focused on the wool attributes and have drilled down hard on our coefficient variation and comfort factor attributes, which has tightened up the variation of our wool.
"We now produce a type of wool that his highly sought after and a sheep that has outstanding carcase qualities to go with it."
Mr Walker sees a bright future with the partnership with Roseville Corriedales and the Manchester family, and has ordered another container of his Roseville blood wool to expand their offering to a line of affordable scarves and beanies, while continuing the high-price point blankets and yarn they currently offer.
“We sell a couple of tonne of yarn every year and it is extremely popular, and this product will slip in nicely to our offering,“ he said.
Bendigo Woollen Mills marketing manager Kimberly Palmer said the wool is spun very fine and the end product is quite a beautiful blend.
"It gives us massive “Farm to Yarn” appeal in marketing the product," she said.
“It is really lovely and soft and this Corriedale wool is matching the softness of our premium Merino product range.”
Ms Palmer said they had greeted two knitting patterns from the yarn, in an eight ply as the most commonly used type of yarn they sell, but also a 12 ply, which is really nice and snuggly.
“We are the largest yarn manufacturing business in Australia and to have a product like this to add to our range has the yarners very excited to get their hands on the product as soon as they can,” she said.
The launch turned out to be a great event as it's not every day yarners get the opportunity to meet the producer face-to-face, discuss the product, and where it comes from and how it's produced.
Mr Manchester’s life-long passion for breeding a high quality Corriedale wool was on show and the true grit and determination to produce a product like this came out in emotion at the launch.
He said it was one of the most emotional nights of his life and something he will remember forever.
And the work has only just begun, now it was back to the drawing board to put together the next container of wool, which will be sourced between himself and through the clients that buy his rams.
“This has opened up another market for my commercial producers to get on board and be part of the journey," Mr Manchester said.
“The plan is to have a Roseville logo on all the blankets and products going forward, and we are in discussions with Australian Wool Innovation about adding the Woolmark logo to the product to verify it as a premium product.
“It is very exciting times here at Roseville and we are extremely excited to see where this journey takes us.”
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