BIGGA woolgrower Murray Picker is a very happy man after one of his wool bales (branded Hillcreston/Pinehill) from his family property achieved a 1 PP Certification last week.
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Mr Picker says that PP was simply believed to stand for ‘one plus plus’ quality wool according to the types classified by the Australian Wool Council in the 1960s, with 1 being classed as the best, and PP being added later as wool types improved.
A 1PP wool bale is often used by famous suit making companies and fine wool specialists.
The Pickers managed to sell the 12.2 micron bale for 30,000 c/kg to Gregor Thissen from Scabal, the fifth largest cloth makers in the world, who are based in Italy, Belgium and the UK.
“Gregor was a breath of fresh air to us when he visited Hillcreston, and he surprised us with his knowledge as he explained to us how traditional spinner type wools produced a much better finished article than other wools,” Mr Picker said.
“He continued that Scabal wished to use more of our traditional wools in other micron areas as they feel it produces the best finished product for them.”
To award a wool bale with a 1 PP certification, a special panel is convened consisting of buyers, who appraise each bale on its merits.
Mr Picker said the bale was purchased for Scabal’s ‘Noble Wool Club’, which was created after Mr Thissen visited Australia in November, 2013.
Mr Thissen consulted with Scabal’s creative and technical teams, who all agreed that it was essential to ‘create a bridge between the specialised producers of certain types of ultra-fine wool and their ultimate consumers’.
“As a leading marketer of sophisticated, specialised, ultrafine wool products, Scabal feel both a responsibility and long term opportunity in establishing a privileged relationship with the best producers,” Scabal states in its introduction on the Scabal Noble Wool Club.
“We feel that it is in the best interest of both ultrafine wool growers and Scabal to collaborate in order to better understand each other’s needs and market opportunities while ensuring the long term sustainability of this extraordinary production process.”
The Noble Wool Club was also formed especially with specialist wool growers who have been growing superfine, traditional Ausfine type quality wool.
Mr Picker also noted that this was the first 1PP bale sold to Scabal in three years, as they had previously been selling privately to the company.
“In terms of the very fine micron wool market, this is the first bale to achieve 1 PP certification under 14 microns in the last three years,” he said.
“The wool from the bale will be used for suits due to its fine quality, excellent type and high specifications.
Myself and my two brothers Grant and Brett Picker and business partner Wayne Krause from Temora have been responsible for producing these bales, and we also managed to sell another 1,300 kg this week of 13.2 micron wool to Scabal for their ‘Super 200s’ cloth.
Already Scabal have launched the Super 200s cloth in four countries around the world, using wool delivered in 2014 to make the cloth.”