NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Business

Big break for Hawke's Bay as Big Save buys farms, ups the ante in wool industry

By Doug Laing
Hawkes Bay Today·
21 Jun, 2021 06:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Big Save Furniture has bought farms, not the one pictured, in Hawke's Bay, the biggest producer of strong wool at a regional level in the world. Photo / NZME

Big Save Furniture has bought farms, not the one pictured, in Hawke's Bay, the biggest producer of strong wool at a regional level in the world. Photo / NZME

Hawke's Bay is set to play a major role in the revival of the New Zealand wool industry kick-started by wool-buying moves taken by Napier-based furnishing manufacturer and retailer Big Save Furniture.

Moving away from synthetics as much as possible, the company is paying farmers $4.50kg for strong wool in which Hawke's Bay is the biggest regional producer in the World - more than double recent market lows which have seen farmers paying more for the shearing than they're getting for the wool.

The property arm of the McMinn family operation has also bought four farms in Southern Hawke's Bay in the last 12 months, about 3000 hectares of sheep and beef farming, under the Big Rural brand.

The crisis is highlighted by Campaign for Wool NZ Trust chairman Tom O'Sullivan, from Havelock North, the fourth generation of a Central Hawke's Bay sheep-farming family, one of several people from Hawke's Bay at the centre of moves to get the industry, and who says that at the height of the industry in the 1950s the farm could have been bought from "the one wool-cheque".

Among others leading the charge are National Council of New Zealand Wool Interests chairman Craig Smith, originally from Waipawa, all expecting a shift back to wool amid the synthetics domination of the fibre industry.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

O'Sullivan, and Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway, express some astonishment at the lack of recognition of the qualities and benefits of wool – that it is fire resistant and biodegradable.

"Why would someone worry about getting a single plastic bag from a supermarket when the (synthetic) carpet in the average comes from the equivalent of 22,000 plastic bags," O'Sullivan said.

He said it's an "indictment" of the wool industry over many years that many of the general public remain unaware of the "the story" of wool.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

O'Sullivan said the Campaign for Wool Trust, the New Zealand arm of the global Campaign for Wool, and active interest of Prince Charles, who is Patron, had been working with Big Save for more than eight months on their moving into natural wool fibre.

"We are extremely excited at the progress they are making and are keen to support them in any way we can.," he said.

Part of the story was told last month in a link with the International Wool Technology Organisation, O'Sullivan, Smith and Big Save spokesman Dan Norman all in on the webinar – seated on a Big Save sofa.

Norman told Hawke's Bay Today the response to the company's move was "fantastic", and added" "We're quite humbled actually.

A statement from Big Save, founded in 1973, says the company explored different ways of using wool and is committed to "making a difference with our impact on our environment".

It wanted to be "industry leaders," says managing director Tom McKimm, and it is now paying farmers more than double the recent market lows of under $2.

"We committed to buying wool for a fair price of $4.40kg, committed to a consistent supply agreement, and were then able to show the local wool farmers the end result – a beautiful sofa."

"With all this wool research this is only the start of using this incredible renewable fibre," he says.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The company says part of the farm-purchase decision making process was that it believes in learning and being involved in any business units from the ground up.

"There is no point in us telling farmers what to do or what we need if we are coming from an uneducated position," it said. "We believe with the right use of technology and the right mix of traditional farming methods the strong wool industry will prosper and wool will return to being a high yielding income stream for farms."

"The growth of our Big Rural Business with the purchase of our own farms show that we are totally committed to what we are doing with NZ strong wool," the company says.

Strong wool is about 85 per cent of the production from a national flock of about 27 million, but lags well behind the fine wool of the mainly South Island merino, attracting more than $20kg.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Business

Markets with Madison

'We're really excited': Kiwi firm's US$1b stake in AI infrastructure

Premium
Media Insider

Late show: 4 years on, where is taxpayer-funded Chlöe Swarbrick film? NZ v Oz - who has best TV ad?

Premium
OpinionMatthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori


Sponsored

Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

'We're really excited': Kiwi firm's US$1b stake in AI infrastructure
Markets with Madison

'We're really excited': Kiwi firm's US$1b stake in AI infrastructure

Morrison has invested in a US firm providing the underground fibre cables.

17 Jul 07:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Late show: 4 years on, where is taxpayer-funded Chlöe Swarbrick film? NZ v Oz - who has best TV ad?
Media Insider

Late show: 4 years on, where is taxpayer-funded Chlöe Swarbrick film? NZ v Oz - who has best TV ad?

17 Jul 05:06 PM
Premium
Premium
Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori
Matthew Hooton
OpinionMatthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori

17 Jul 05:00 PM


Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?
Sponsored

Tired of missing out on getting to global summits to help grow your business?

14 Jul 04:48 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP