Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Bremworth reversing their wool carpet only policy

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Bremworth reversing their wool carpet only policy · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: With us.
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  Speaker 3: Right now is Jamie McKay, host of the Country.
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  Speaker 2: Hey Jamie, good evening, Heather.
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  Speaker 3: Now, what did you make of Bremworth deciding to do
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  Speaker 3: the synthetic carpets again.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it hasn't probably gone down well with some farmers,
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  Speaker 2: but I think if you look at it from a distance,
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  Speaker 2: it's probably a pragmatic decision. So they've reversed their wall
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  Speaker 2: only policy and they're now going to start making synthetic
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  Speaker 2: carpets as well. Now they stopped producing synthetic carpets back
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty in favor of the wall only policy.
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  Speaker 2: But there's been a recent shakeup on the board. You
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  Speaker 2: might remember that Rob Hewitt, the new chair, ditched the
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  Speaker 2: old board. He's the chair of Everything in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 2: formerly Silver Firm, Farms and Farmlands. But he did it
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  Speaker 2: off the back of falling revenue. The chief executive, by
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  Speaker 2: the way, he was a victim. He stepped down recently
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  Speaker 2: after four years ago, by the name of Greg Smith.
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  Speaker 2: You feill from one hundred and fifty million to eighty
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  Speaker 2: million in the in the space of six years. I
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  Speaker 2: guess they had to do something that the Hewitt said
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  Speaker 2: the decision to stop selling synthetic carpets in favor of
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  Speaker 2: wool only products had not resulted in improved sales, while
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  Speaker 2: operating costs had still remained high. He said not having
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  Speaker 2: synthetics in their portfolio actually made things more difficult because
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  Speaker 2: their customers wanted to sample both synthetics and wool and they,
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  Speaker 2: says said, we need to spread our costs across the
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  Speaker 2: wider base, and our customers are clearly looking for a
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  Speaker 2: synthetic product, okay. And he also said having a complete
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  Speaker 2: portfolio ie synthetics and wool will actually help them grow
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  Speaker 2: their wall product sales. I hope so. Our Federated Farmers
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  Speaker 2: not surprisingly Meet and Wool chair Toby Williams said the
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  Speaker 2: wall industry was teating teetering and this would be another
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  Speaker 2: knock for farmer confidence. He said it was disappointing but understandable.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, because it's market reality, isn't it. But
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  Speaker 3: how embarrassing for Brimworth because remember that campaign that they launched.
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  Speaker 3: It was just so harsh about synthetic carpets and now
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  Speaker 3: they're doing them again.
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  Speaker 2: Well they've done a bit of a backflip. I mean
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  Speaker 2: everyone's doing and these days look at Trump and his tariffs.
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  Speaker 2: But look the reality of it is, as much as
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  Speaker 2: we want to use wall carpets and the government have
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  Speaker 2: been a champion of that in there in their buildings,
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  Speaker 2: some people don't want wall carpets. They want the cheaper
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  Speaker 2: synthetic option, which may have some advantages, and an ideal world,
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  Speaker 2: we would all we would we would all choose wall carpets,
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  Speaker 2: but ultimately the market will decide.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, brilliant, Jamie. It's good to talk to you, as always.
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  Speaker 3: Talk to you in a couple of days. Jimmy McKay,
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  Speaker 3: Host of the Country.
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