Sally and Rob Peter of Isolation Station in Marlborough are manufacturing and marketing a range of truly New Zealand made baby and toddler knitwear products from their Saxon merino wool.
Despite the closure of so many wool processing plants and textile manufacturing companies in New Zealand, the Peters use the remaining facilities to turn their niche fibre into baby blankets and clothes.
“If our wool was processed offshore we feel we couldn’t call it Isolation. Also we process small lots of wool which would make it too hard to do in China,” says Sally.
Isolation Merino products are sold via their e-commerce website, mail order catalogue and 15 retailers around New Zealand and in Ireland. The Peters started their venture in 1997 after attending a New Zealand Merino Company conference in Christchurch the year before.
“I was so inspired we talked all the way home,” recalls Sally. “The price we were getting for our wool was pathetic and when the kids were little I’d been frustrated trying to buy natural un-dyed wool baby wear. Saxon merino is ideal for this purpose because it is so light and bright. The natural stretch means you can wrap them up really right and they don’t sweat.”
When Sally got home she rang Heather Perriam of Bendigo Station. Heather had been making products for her merino shop in Tarras for years. She was keen to help and gave the Peters some yarn to experiment with and contacts in the processing industry.
The learning curve was steep because as stud breeders and wool growers, the Peters did not need to know a lot about what happened to the fibre once it left the farm gate. Selling wool on contract to clothing manufacturers was still in its infancy. Instead the majority of wool was sold at auction and farmers had little idea who bought the wool for what purpose.
To create products from their own wool, the Peters needed to know a lot more about wool processing. On a trip to Designer Spun in Napier they learnt the finer the wool the more difficult it is to process, especially carding which combs the wool, aligning the fibres ready to be spun into yarn. At 18-19 microns, Isolation Saxon is at the finer end of the spectrum but Designer Spun was able to card and spin the first 500 kg shipment.
They also spent a lot of time in shops buying baby wear and balls of wool called merino even though a lot of it was 28 micron. They studied how yarn is made and decided to revive a rarely-used traditional construction method.
“Nearly every ball of wool you buy is two threads wound around each other but it may not wear very well and could pill. We decided on a traditional yarn made from six threads spun separately then wound together. Although it makes the yarn more expensive, it gives a soft handle, strength and stability.”
To ensure the Isolation yarn would wear well the Peters engaged the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ) to test it for pilling and strength. The results were positive and 10 years on customers tell Isolation they are using the same garments on their third child.
The blankets are made in a factory in Christchurch and the clothing is made on a piecework basis by women working at home using computerised knitting machines.
Sally says a whole generation has grown up not wearing wool and often people who visit her showroom in Ward on State Highway One ask what the products are made from.
“The New Zealand Merino Company has done a great job educating people about merino but people are still blown away by how light and bright the Saxon wool is. A lot of people have asked for coloured products so we now dye the wool. The colours are brilliant because the fleece is naturally so bright.”
Customers also value the Isolation brand story of near chemical-free sheep living in the wild seaward Kaikouras farmed by a family with deep roots in the Merino industry. In the 1850s Rob’s family began breeding merinos in Australia. Sally’s family were wool dyers in Scotland and the Lakes District in England.
Experience has taught the Peters that on average it is two years from when the wool is shorn until the knitwear product is sold to the customer. Many people need to be paid before they get a financial return. There are also many issues to manage such where to get their wool processed and how to control manufacturing quality.
Isolation produces about eight tonnes of merino a year. Although they only turn about one tonne of that into finished products, the Peters are pleased they decided to launch the brand and a steady increase in demand has been satisfying.
“The part hard is that as a grower and a breeder, you aren’t qualified as a clothing designer, marketer or manufacturer but I still love doing it,” says Sally.
The Peters also run a tourism venture with neighbours Kevin and Carol Loe and farm cattle and Corriedale sheep at Cape Campbell.
