ETS questions as stakes raised in HB woolscour giant

Tanarra Capital investment director Maja Sliwinski(centre) with Rosstan Mazey(left), of WoolWorks, and Neil Vinson, of Tanarra Capital. Photo / Supplied.

Hawke's Bay-based global woolscouring giant WoolWorks has called for urgent changes to the carbon Emissions Trading Scheme as the company makes further major investment in the future of the wool industry.

Part-owner and wool industry stalwart David Ferrier says the company and owners share the red meat sector's concerns about the "unbridled ability of fossil fuel emitters to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees on productive sheep and beef farms."

"WoolWorks is worried the sale of sheep and beef farms into carbon farming will only accelerate as the carbon-price increases," he said.

"The Government must make changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme as a matter of urgency."

His comments came in an announcement that he and Australasian asset management firm Tanarra Capital have lifted their stakes in WoolWorks, which has scouring plants at Awatoto and Clive, and in the South Island at Washdyke.

A growing diversified alternative asset investment business headquartered in Sydney, Tanarra and New Zealander David Ferrier have each taken a half-share of WoolWorks after purchasing Lempriere Holdings' 30 per cent share of the business.

WoolWorks is the largest woolscourer by volume in the world and handles 80 per cent of all New Zealand wool, despite the worries of continued conversion of productive farmland into carbon farms.

The company has a significant environmental programme under way at its sites, and is replacing its Awatoto site's natural gas-based hot water generation system with a modern efficient hot water heat pump, significantly reducing the site's carbon emissions by almost a quarter.

WoolWorks is also switching from coal to an electrode boiler at its site near Timaru.

Tanarra Capital investment director Maja Sliwinski said the investors are committed to growing the business as a partner alongside Ferrier and the WoolWorks team.

"We view WoolWorks as not just best-in-class for wool scouring, but also a leading producer of woolbased solutions and ingredients such as lanolin," she said.

"WoolWorks is the world's only supplier of pure New Zealand lanolin, which has high cholesterol content along with a high emulsification content, a prerequisite for those who choose wool grease to produce lanolin alcohol, cholesterol and Vitamin D3, as well as being popular for use in the manufacture of lanolin and lanolin derivatives."

Ferrier says WoolWorks is a world leader in processing crossbred wool for local customers and others throughout the world, and plays a critical role on behalf of the New Zealand wool industry to ensure that New Zealand wool is of the highest quality by investing in people, processes, research, development, and innovation.