--- Sam Guthrie, AWI Manager, Greater China

Opportunity abounds throughout this enormous and powerful country. Everyday I feel as though a giant has awoken and is hungry for growth. My job is to connect and educate people about wool, to make the natural fibre part of this growth as companies develop and look to grow through differentiation. I feel a little like a wool missionary in a way.

My colleagues who worked in China ten, 20 years ago like Jimmy Jackson were welcomed by the Chinese as they were eager to gain the technological understanding of developing consistent quality products on a mass production scale. Today, the mighty Chinese manufacturer can produce excellent quality - what they are lacking (to a degree) is the creativity, marketing and innovation, which are not yet major skills, which allow them to sell their products at a higher margin on the basis of ‘innovation’ or ‘brand equity’ like their competitors in Europe – rather than competing over price. This restructuring and the rise of a hungry domestic market is profoundly reshaping Chinese manufacturing as it did previously in Europe ten years ago.

Therefore my life in China is spent providing ‘inspiration’ to these partners, acting in a way like their external marketing and innovation department to help them differentiate their products and ‘up value’ their business. 

The ways we provide this ‘inspiration’ are as diverse as the companies we work with. In some instances it could be in-depth textile innovations such as the creative opportunities presented through Merino Casual, the softness of Merino Touch^TM and the lightweight fabrics of Merino Cool^TM – I can sell a marketing message alongside the wool story. In other instances it could be building product and marketing platforms and brands to help package and sell our partner’s wool products to the world. It could even be working with international companies attempting to find supply chains in China, or with leading brands to create major consumer oriented promotional campaigns, like we are currently with leading European cloth makers to break into the Chinese domestic market with a differentiating wool story. Whatever the specific inspiration, or whomever the partner, we are working to inspire the trade and the consumer towards wool.

Having the networks and connections throughout the processing industry is naturally an important part of business, the Chinese are naturally a very warm and welcoming people but to get beyond the front door one must first gain valuable trust. This must be done through face to face meetings (most often followed by an enormous lunch). Business trust in China is understandably not earned easily or quickly.

This pioneering work is always exciting.