Latest news with #wool
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Faribault Mill Is An Inspiring Story Of Industrial Rebirth
The "new" mill building in Faribault, Minnesota, which dates back to 1892. To the people who say you can't bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., that nobody here in the States wants to do textile work anymore, and that services are the country's future, the folks at Faribault Mill say, 'Hold our beer.' The company, privately held since merging with the investment-minded clothing firm CircleRock in 2020, came back from being shut down, flooded, and ready to be dismantled to ramping up production once again, combining the area's old-school know-how and an investment in modern equipment to forge a whole new business model. A rich history Part of the strength of Faribault Mill is its history. The year was 1865, and the Civil War was just drawing to its close. In little Faribault, Minnesota, about 50 miles south of the Twin Cities, German immigrant Carl H. Klemer was starting up a business that would become the Faribault Woolen Mill Company, with the original horse-powered mill operating as a wool carding factory that made raw local wool into wool batting—layers of interlocked fibers used for quilting. In 1872, the company's offerings would be expanded to include cloth, flannel, and wool blankets. In 1892, the company would move into a new mill there in Faribault, trading their actual horsepower for hydropower that better accommodated the growing business. Their wool blankets would provide the company with a huge sales opportunity when America entered World War I in 1917. Over the country's year-and-a-half involvement in the fighting, Faribault would provide our soldiers with about 100,000 blankets. Faribault had strong sales growth between the wars as department stores took the country by storm. That accelerated after the Second World War ended, as the US became increasingly prosperous in the post-war boom. The company began using imported wool from Australia and New Zealand and continued to innovate in new products, designs and colors, as well as advances that included washable wool and moth-proofed offerings. Business expansions into areas such as blankets for airplanes and hotels helped grow the bottom line too. Faribault's Cabin Wood Throw blanket is characteristic of the company's superior quality, upmarket ... More product direction. But the new millennium brought big trouble. Textile producers across America were either offshoring their production or shutting down completely. Faribault soldiered on longer than most, but the business was sold in 2001, ending 136 years of ownership by the family of founder Carl Klemer. In 2009, the industry trends appeared to finally catch up with the company. The factory was closed, employees were laid off, and the plant's equipment was tagged to be sold overseas. Rising from the dead But then along came Chuck Mooty, former CEO of International Dairy Queen, and his cousin, attorney Paul Mooty. They reopened the business in 2011 as a family venture, which included bringing Chuck's son John on as marketing director. They envisioned a big opportunity to leverage the high quality of the company's products to move their marketing upscale. They relaunched with about 30 employees and new commercial customers such as high-end New York hotels that included the Hudson and the Waldorf-Astoria and helped along by a large but brief flurry of demand from JC Penney. The group's business recovery plans were progressing when the newly revitalized company merged with CircleRock, then an American-made men's clothing company. 'They were looking for a new group of investors, kind of a different direction for the company in February of 2020, and that's when we got the deal done,' Ross Widmoyer, a co-founder of CircleRock who now serves as CEO of Faribault Mill, told me in an interview. 'We've been working hard over the past couple years to right the ship and point us in the right direction,' added Rick Dow, the company's Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer. 'Three straight years of record growth has us all pretty excited about where we're headed.' Rehiring expert workers One of the first challenges in restarting the mill dated back to the original group that tackled the problems, and that was quickly regaining the expertise they needed to operate. Dow explained, 'When the group out of the Twin Cities that bought the assets of the mill came down to Faribault, they went around town knocking on doors of people who used to work at the mill to say, 'Can you come over and tell us what this machine is? Does this machine work? If it does work, do you know how to operate it? If the answer to all three of those questions is yes, yes, yes, you're hired.' And that's the kind of heavy lifting of reviving this mill.' They also tapped into the network of their newer team members. 'What we did is found a core nucleus of younger workers who had joined us over the previous few years and sat them down and said, 'Who do you know that's smart, who's curious, who's creative, who would like to work in a fun environment, who may be doing something totally different?' explained Widmoyer. 'And let's start talking, because good people hang out with good people, and we can train them and give them a career path. And that's what we did. And so if you look at our workforce right now, we've really bucked the trend. Right now, our average age is somewhere in the 30s on our manufacturing floor.' Faribault Mill CEO Ross Widmoyer chats with a team member on the factory floor. Another part of the workforce strategy was knowledge capture, involving both the company's most knowledgeable employees and its broader business network. 'Frankly, we know we've partnered with experts around the globe,' Dow said. 'We've got loom experts, color experts and others internally that can pass along some of their knowledge to the next generation of workers, and for the areas where we don't have experts, the production team has done a really good job bringing in outside experts to show us how to optimize things.' Bold new investment An especially bold move by the new owners has been their enormous investment in new production equipment. 'We knew when we came in we were going to have to make a significant investment in new production equipment,' said Widmoyer. 'A multi-million-dollar investment in new looms, a new state of the art industrial tenter dryer, nappers, fulling machines, and so you know that not only has allowed us to have our team spend more time actually making product as opposed to fixing machine, but it's also allowed us to retain and recruit a much younger workforce.' 'I think one of the things that has hurt the American industry has been the lack of ability to really do that kind of investment,' Robert Antoshak, VP of global strategic sourcing and development at Gray Matter Concepts and a textile industry expert, told me in an interview. 'They can't keep up. So you walk into some of these plants and they're pretty old and they're just not running efficiently. They don't keep up the maintenance, that kind of thing. It's really a tough story. So to see something like this is just really exciting.' A final big recent move was the expansion of the business into another natural fiber, cotton, through the 2022 purchase of Maine's Brahms Mount, a much younger fellow blanket maker founded in 1983. The team saw that as a great merging of traditional regional cultures that share the made-in-America ethic. In the end, though, it all comes down to the people. 'We've been really fortunate to have second, third and fourth generation craftspeople at our place,' said Dow. 'One of my favorite stories is there's a woman up on our third floor cut and sew area who just had a baby, and her grandparents met while working on that very same floor where she works today. So, you know, it's the fourth generation that we welcomed into the Faribault family, which is really, really neat.' I think that's a terrific model for a lot of manufacturing,' said Antoshak. 'It has to be more than a niche. It's understanding what your what market is, how to reach that market. It's more important than ever, how to do it to different channels. Yeah, it's also more than just a Made-in-USA story. I think it's that local story, going to get the workers back. I think that will resonate and translate not only to more attention for the company, but to more sales.'
CBC
26-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Nova Scotia sheep farmer recalls meeting Charles before he was King
Gillian Crawford, a sheep farmer in River John, N.S., recounts meeting Canada's current monarch during his 2014 visit, when he was still the Prince of Wales. She presented her sheep to Charles to commemorate the launch of the Canadian branch of Campaign for Wool, a group that advocates for the revival of the wool industry.
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Demand for caskets made from sheeps wool on the rise
business rural 17 minutes ago As well as selling top quality wool to buyers around the world, Polly and Ross McGuckin's Yaldhurst Wools business also provides funeral homes with biodegradable caskets and ash urns made from New Zealand wool.
CNN
12-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump's tariffs could boost some ‘Made in America' small businesses. But for many, they only hurt
It takes about 20 steps for tufts of raw wool to become a signature Faribault Mill blanket, and it all happens under one roof in this southern Minnesota city. It's a symphonic process that has been honed over 160 years and now one where employees (including third- and fourth-generation mill staff members) work alongside a blend of state-of-the-art machinery and 19th century equipment from start to finish. The only things missing from the mill are the sheep themselves: Many of them are busy grazing fields a few states over in the Rocky Mountains. It's been largely business as usual at the Faribault Mill in recent months, a state of affairs that has very recently become a luxury for scores of US companies. Faribault Mill remains overwhelmingly insulated from the uncertainty injected into the US economy as President Donald Trump's sweeping and steep tariffs upend operations for businesses reliant upon global trade. 'We haven't had to create a war room; we've just continued to make blankets the way we've been doing it for a long time,' Ross Widmoyer, Faribault Mill's chief executive officer, told CNN. If anything, it's only gotten busier. Widmoyer has been fielding a slew of calls from potential new customers, retailers trying to stave off shortages and shore up their shelves come fall and Christmastime. Still, despite the possible boon, Faribault Mill and other companies with domestic-centric supply chains aren't entirely immune from negative implications of Trump's ever-shifting trade moves. 'That's the thing: The uncertainty and the fear of a slowdown in consumer spending,' Widmoyer said. 'I don't care if you're making product in the United States, or you're making everything overseas. That will certainly not help any business if there's a slowdown.' The US imported about $723 million worth of pet toys last year, 93% of which originated from China, according to a trade data analysis provided to CNN by Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. Import tariffs, particularly the 145% level imposed by the US last month on Chinese goods, should be welcome for a company like West Paw, which has made dog toys from recycled materials in scenic Bozeman, Montana, for nearly 29 years. In that time, West Paw forged a domestic supply chain out of a desire to create economic vitality in the local community while minimizing impact on the environment, said Spencer Williams, West Paw's founder and CEO. It certainly came in handy five years ago, when the pandemic snarled once-smooth supply chains. West Paw's sales soared as demand for pets boomed and as product shortages pinched other manufacturers. So far this year, Williams has seen a noticeable uptick in requests from businesses large and small interested in carrying West Paw's toys. 'With the [more than 90%] of pet toys imported from China, we cannot produce all of those in Montana; but we will take on, happily, a partnership with a retailer who's looking for a long-term relationship,' Williams said. The potential is ripe for another bountiful period in West Paw's business; however, 2025 is not expected to be a rinse-and-repeat of the pandemic sales boom for two primary reasons, Williams noted. First, there's no certainty these tariffs will remain as they are today. 'I'm not going to double this factory tomorrow or be foolish, because I couldn't bank on that; I have no assurance that this is going to be the market going forward,' he said. 'We scaled a lot in Covid, and then things did slow down a little bit after that. A lot of industries saw that. So, we're going to be very thoughtful and cautious and serve our customers best with predictability.' Second, the reverberating effects of tariffs — specifically, retaliatory actions by other countries — stand to deliver a big bite on an important leg of West Paw's business. The company exports its toys to 40 countries, with Canada being its largest partner. West Paw's export business accounts for about 15% to 18% of overall sales, Williams said. West Paw doesn't want to lose those sales, he said. It's good business for the company, gets its brand out there globally and brings in foreign currency into the United States. 'We feel like we've been at the forefront of doing right in our business by building a supply chain that is durable and independent and private in America since we were founded in 1996; we will not change that,' he said. 'And we also believe firmly that we are global citizens who have the opportunity to work with partners around the world.' 'I love our export customers; they challenge us to be better,' he added. 'And while it's hard to love the imports that are coming in at low cost, it also helps us compete, to sharpen our pencil and be really innovative as a company.' In early 2005, Oneida Limited shuttered its 1 million-square-foot silverware-making facility in Sherrill, New York. Oneida's move — a continuation of a shuffling of operations overseas — put a fork in the company's storied run in a town nicknamed 'The Silver City.' The closure also presented an opportunity for two employees to buy the plant and breathe new life into a hampered US manufacturing industry. Their Sherrill Manufacturing compnay would become the sole remaining flatware maker in the US. Twenty years after that purchase, Sherrill Manufacturing co-founder Greg Owens tells CNN that even more opportunities are abound because of the tariffs that have been imposed. 'Domestic manufacturing is going to have its renaissance if, in fact, there's follow-through on this,' said Owens, whose Sherrill Manufacturing produces the Liberty Tabletop flatware brand. 'It started out with a bang, and I think it's part of the negotiating process, as there was a pause put in. So, everybody's sitting in a holding pattern waiting to see what's going to be the final-final.' 'And when that final-final is announced, and people are confident that it's going to stick — hopefully through Congress and not through [executive orders], that's when the investing and hiring begins.' Liberty Tabletop has plenty of capacity to expand, Owens said, noting the facility could ramp up to four times its output in relatively short order. Liberty Tabletop, in addition to selling to the US government (particularly military bases) has built a direct-to-consumer business to keep prices down for customers and also has a private label business, which has received an increase in interest since the tariffs were implemented. To that end, the tariffs on China, in particular, could help level the playing field, Owens said, noting that country produces 80% of the flatware America imports. Additionally, his company inked a three-year supply agreement with its US-based steel provider at the end of last year, which could help guard Liberty Tabletop against any raw material price increases that could occur as a result of trade-related measures. 'It's better to be lucky than good,' he said. 'I think we're in great shape. There are others who don't have those agreements that may not be in that same position.' Tariffs create some winners as well as some losers, Jason Miller, the MSU professor, told CNN. 'The challenge is, it's a weighted average to see which one is more pronounced,' he said. 'My general sense is that right now, we're in the category where the losing is more pronounced, but we have to see how policy evolves.' The biggest challenge, by and far, is uncertainty, Miller said. 'Not knowing what's going to happen is so problematic for businesspeople,' he said. At the Faribault Mill, Widmoyer said that having more certainty — 'whatever that landscape will be' — will enhance businesses' abilities to plan and invest. 'On the flip side [to the increase in calls from retailers], there are a lot of retailers who I think are just hunkering down, staying put, trying to figure out what's going to happen next,' he said. 'That uncertainty is not sustainable over the long run.' Still, his company is positioned to withstand some shifts, he said, noting recent seven-figure investments in the mill's equipment and its workers that improved productivity and allowed for some price cuts for its best-selling products. 'If you do the right things for your customers, it could help you withstand the storms of any economic uncertainty,' he said. And Faribault Mill has weathered plenty of upheaval since 1865 — including the Civil War, two world wars, multiple recessions, two global pandemics and multiple booms. 'This company has withstood the test of time,' he said. 'It hasn't always been easy, but we figure it out.'
CNN
12-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Trump's tariffs could boost some ‘Made in America' small businesses. But for many, they only hurt
It takes about 20 steps for tufts of raw wool to become a signature Faribault Mill blanket, and it all happens under one roof in this southern Minnesota city. It's a symphonic process that has been honed over 160 years and now one where employees (including third- and fourth-generation mill staff members) work alongside a blend of state-of-the-art machinery and 19th century equipment from start to finish. The only things missing from the mill are the sheep themselves: Many of them are busy grazing fields a few states over in the Rocky Mountains. It's been largely business as usual at the Faribault Mill in recent months, a state of affairs that has very recently become a luxury for scores of US companies. Faribault Mill remains overwhelmingly insulated from the uncertainty injected into the US economy as President Donald Trump's sweeping and steep tariffs upend operations for businesses reliant upon global trade. 'We haven't had to create a war room; we've just continued to make blankets the way we've been doing it for a long time,' Ross Widmoyer, Faribault Mill's chief executive officer, told CNN. If anything, it's only gotten busier. Widmoyer has been fielding a slew of calls from potential new customers, retailers trying to stave off shortages and shore up their shelves come fall and Christmastime. Still, despite the possible boon, Faribault Mill and other companies with domestic-centric supply chains aren't entirely immune from negative implications of Trump's ever-shifting trade moves. 'That's the thing: The uncertainty and the fear of a slowdown in consumer spending,' Widmoyer said. 'I don't care if you're making product in the United States, or you're making everything overseas. That will certainly not help any business if there's a slowdown.' The US imported about $723 million worth of pet toys last year, 93% of which originated from China, according to a trade data analysis provided to CNN by Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. Import tariffs, particularly the 145% level imposed by the US last month on Chinese goods, should be welcome for a company like West Paw, which has made dog toys from recycled materials in scenic Bozeman, Montana, for nearly 29 years. In that time, West Paw forged a domestic supply chain out of a desire to create economic vitality in the local community while minimizing impact on the environment, said Spencer Williams, West Paw's founder and CEO. It certainly came in handy five years ago, when the pandemic snarled once-smooth supply chains. West Paw's sales soared as demand for pets boomed and as product shortages pinched other manufacturers. So far this year, Williams has seen a noticeable uptick in requests from businesses large and small interested in carrying West Paw's toys. 'With the [more than 90%] of pet toys imported from China, we cannot produce all of those in Montana; but we will take on, happily, a partnership with a retailer who's looking for a long-term relationship,' Williams said. The potential is ripe for another bountiful period in West Paw's business; however, 2025 is not expected to be a rinse-and-repeat of the pandemic sales boom for two primary reasons, Williams noted. First, there's no certainty these tariffs will remain as they are today. 'I'm not going to double this factory tomorrow or be foolish, because I couldn't bank on that; I have no assurance that this is going to be the market going forward,' he said. 'We scaled a lot in Covid, and then things did slow down a little bit after that. A lot of industries saw that. So, we're going to be very thoughtful and cautious and serve our customers best with predictability.' Second, the reverberating effects of tariffs — specifically, retaliatory actions by other countries — stand to deliver a big bite on an important leg of West Paw's business. The company exports its toys to 40 countries, with Canada being its largest partner. West Paw's export business accounts for about 15% to 18% of overall sales, Williams said. West Paw doesn't want to lose those sales, he said. It's good business for the company, gets its brand out there globally and brings in foreign currency into the United States. 'We feel like we've been at the forefront of doing right in our business by building a supply chain that is durable and independent and private in America since we were founded in 1996; we will not change that,' he said. 'And we also believe firmly that we are global citizens who have the opportunity to work with partners around the world.' 'I love our export customers; they challenge us to be better,' he added. 'And while it's hard to love the imports that are coming in at low cost, it also helps us compete, to sharpen our pencil and be really innovative as a company.' In early 2005, Oneida Limited shuttered its 1 million-square-foot silverware-making facility in Sherrill, New York. Oneida's move — a continuation of a shuffling of operations overseas — put a fork in the company's storied run in a town nicknamed 'The Silver City.' The closure also presented an opportunity for two employees to buy the plant and breathe new life into a hampered US manufacturing industry. Their Sherrill Manufacturing compnay would become the sole remaining flatware maker in the US. Twenty years after that purchase, Sherrill Manufacturing co-founder Greg Owens tells CNN that even more opportunities are abound because of the tariffs that have been imposed. 'Domestic manufacturing is going to have its renaissance if, in fact, there's follow-through on this,' said Owens, whose Sherrill Manufacturing produces the Liberty Tabletop flatware brand. 'It started out with a bang, and I think it's part of the negotiating process, as there was a pause put in. So, everybody's sitting in a holding pattern waiting to see what's going to be the final-final.' 'And when that final-final is announced, and people are confident that it's going to stick — hopefully through Congress and not through [executive orders], that's when the investing and hiring begins.' Liberty Tabletop has plenty of capacity to expand, Owens said, noting the facility could ramp up to four times its output in relatively short order. Liberty Tabletop, in addition to selling to the US government (particularly military bases) has built a direct-to-consumer business to keep prices down for customers and also has a private label business, which has received an increase in interest since the tariffs were implemented. To that end, the tariffs on China, in particular, could help level the playing field, Owens said, noting that country produces 80% of the flatware America imports. Additionally, his company inked a three-year supply agreement with its US-based steel provider at the end of last year, which could help guard Liberty Tabletop against any raw material price increases that could occur as a result of trade-related measures. 'It's better to be lucky than good,' he said. 'I think we're in great shape. There are others who don't have those agreements that may not be in that same position.' Tariffs create some winners as well as some losers, Jason Miller, the MSU professor, told CNN. 'The challenge is, it's a weighted average to see which one is more pronounced,' he said. 'My general sense is that right now, we're in the category where the losing is more pronounced, but we have to see how policy evolves.' The biggest challenge, by and far, is uncertainty, Miller said. 'Not knowing what's going to happen is so problematic for businesspeople,' he said. At the Faribault Mill, Widmoyer said that having more certainty — 'whatever that landscape will be' — will enhance businesses' abilities to plan and invest. 'On the flip side [to the increase in calls from retailers], there are a lot of retailers who I think are just hunkering down, staying put, trying to figure out what's going to happen next,' he said. 'That uncertainty is not sustainable over the long run.' Still, his company is positioned to withstand some shifts, he said, noting recent seven-figure investments in the mill's equipment and its workers that improved productivity and allowed for some price cuts for its best-selling products. 'If you do the right things for your customers, it could help you withstand the storms of any economic uncertainty,' he said. And Faribault Mill has weathered plenty of upheaval since 1865 — including the Civil War, two world wars, multiple recessions, two global pandemics and multiple booms. 'This company has withstood the test of time,' he said. 'It hasn't always been easy, but we figure it out.'
