New Zealand High Court Decision on Wool Scouring Industry

Media release

16 December 2011

New Zealand High Court Decision on Wool Scouring Industry

Curtis Wool Direct Ltd (CWD), the largest buyers and processors of British wool in the Northern Hemisphere and with wool buying and merchanting operations in New Zealand would like to congratulate Cavalier Wool Holdings Ltd (CWH) on the decision by the High Court of New Zealand to allow their purchase of the wool scouring assets of New Zealand Wool Services Ltd to go ahead. CWH will initiate structural changes that the industry requires to gain efficiencies, continuous improvement and remain competitive with international scourers when the purchase in completed.

After weeks of argument and discussion CWD believe this decision will bring stability to the wool market in New Zealand. Simon Curtis, Joint Managing Director of CWD who studied wool at Lincoln College in Christchurch said, "This decision will enable CWH to make vital decisions that will ensure that early stage processing will continue in New Zealand for many years to come. We have invested in our own processing facilities in Bradford and we believe it is essential that, wherever possible, value should be added to the raw wool that is produced indigenously. We are convinced it is in the sheep farmers interests to have a strong scouring sector in New Zealand just as we have in the United Kingdom and we believe the decision by the High Court to make this judgement in favour of CWH was made for that very reason."

ENDS

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