brochure - Australian Wool Innovation

Doing business with
Australian Wool
Innovation Limited
Textiles
This brochure explains how your company can do
business with Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI).
AWI invests in wool textile research, development and
innovation – find out how your company can benefit.
Who is Australian Wool
Innovation?
The mission of Australian Wool Innovation
Limited (AWI) is to drive research, development
and innovation that will increase the long-term
profitability of Australian woolgrowers.
AWI is a fully independent public company
owned by Australian woolgrower shareholders.
AWI has funds available for investment in three
key areas:
•
•
•
Wool production
Textile technology
Trade development.
What will AWI fund?
What about confidentiality
AWI funds new/improved process and product
development for the wool industry. For example:
From the very first time you make AWI aware
of an idea or proposal, AWI guarantees that
the idea or proposal will be kept confidential.
•
•
•
costs of consumables, eg material costs;
costs of additional staff, eg research
consultants; and
costs of replacement staff, eg when current
staff are diverted to the new project.
AWI will consider supplying funds for capital
on a case by case basis.
What about intellectual property?
How to do business with AWI
Who can apply for funds from AWI?
Any company in the world that is in the
textile supply chain, including research and
development (R&D) companies, processors
and designers, can apply for funds from AWI.
Because AWI has several hundred projects with
organisations around the world, it generally does
not sign confidentiality agreements for discussions
regarding a new idea or project proposal.
Should a proposal develop into a project,
AWI will ensure that the contract signed
between the two parties incorporates mutual
confidentiality clauses.
AWI will negotiate project intellectual property
(IP) ownership on a project basis.
What about wool advertising?
Where AWI is a co-investor, AWI will be a
joint owner of IP and will seek a return on
IP in proportion to its project funding.
AWI does not fund generic advertisements.
This includes advertising on television,
in magazines, billboards, and retail catalogues.
Existing IP brought to a project remains the
property of the applicant.
Does AWI have to be the sole funder?
AWI’s preferred project is one that includes
co-investment with a company that has clear
aims and objectives for the project.
The focus of AWI’s policy on ownership and
management of IP is to achieve the maximum
overall benefit for AWI’s Australian woolgrower
shareholders.
What size project will AWI fund?
What about royalties?
There is no set size limit for a project. AWI
has funded projects from AU$10,000 to
AU$5 million. However, detailed costings must
be provided – they will be thoroughly examined.
AWI’s primary interest is to see wool used
around the world. Only after this is successfully
achieved and a revenue stream is flowing, will
AWI seek royalties.
A company must give a measure of commitment
to the project in management time, market input
and financial expenditure.
No. AWI encourages participation by other
commercial and government bodies.
AWI project funding process
Applications for funding can be made at
any time.
Applicants are encouraged to consult with AWI
before submitting an application. This will
ensure that applications are speedily processed.
AWI only accepts applications on a concept
proposal form. This three-page form represents
the minimum level of information against which
AWI will make an assessment.
Australia – the world’s supplier of wool
Australia is the world’s leading
producer of wool.
•
Australian wool accounted for 47 per
cent of all wool used in global wool
apparel in 2003/04.
•
Australia is the world’s largest producer
of wool, producing 27 per cent of the
world’s greasy wool in 2003/04.
•
Australian wool exports were valued at
AU$2.5 billion in 2003/04.
•
Australia produces the best quality
wool in the world.
(Source: The Woolmark Company, ABS, AWEX, ABARE)
CASE STUDY of an AWI project: Machine washable wool blend suits
3. AWI brought together Berkeley Apparel
and the Australian retail company
David Jones to get the suit to market.
AWI involvement ceased at this point
with David Jones undertaking
marketing, sales and promotion of the
product to consumers, although AWI
continued to receive a royalty from the
The development of the machine
washable wool blend suit is an example
of the way that AWI works with other
organisations and companies on a
project, bringing the parties together
to get a product to market:
1. The project began with research by
CSIRO who tested a large number of
different wool blend fabric samples and
identified which ones performed best.
The research resulted in a low cost,
wool-polyester fabric able to maintain
its shape and appearance over the
long term.
sale of every suit.
4. AWI has subsequently successfully
targeted one of the largest menswear
manufacturers in China, the Heilan
Group, to produce and retail machine
washable 50/50 wool blend suits. With
assistance from Berkeley Apparel, it is
2. The project progressed to a
manufacturing phase by way of
co-investment between the textile
manufacturer Berkeley Apparel and
AWI. Berkeley Apparel created and
anticipated that mass production will
commence in 2005. Heilan is aiming
to sell 30,000 suits through its retail
shops in its first year of production
and 50,000 suits in its second year.
designed the machine washable
wool blend suit.
Once a concept proposal has been received,
AWI will advise you whether a more
comprehensive project proposal should be
submitted. If AWI decides to proceed from the
concept stage, we will assist you with a full
project proposal.
The concept proposal form and the project
proposal form are available on the AWI website
at www.wool.com.au
How will the application be assessed?
AWI will assess the application on whether it will
benefit Australian woolgrowers. A project needs
to demonstrate it will increase the value/volume
of the market for Australian wool.
How long does it take to approve
an application?
AWI aims to advise you within a month whether
your proposal will be successful. However
project approval, including signing of the
contract, can take up to three months.
Your project proposal will be used as the
basis for your contract with AWI. However,
acceptance of a project proposal does not
constitute a contractual relationship.
Some examples
Projects will not be funded until a contract is
signed. Work begun without a contract in
place will not be paid for by AWI.
•
AWI skills and resources
AWI has a range of skills and resources to
assist you in the project. These skills include:
•
project management;
•
commercial and IP management;
•
technical expertise;
•
global wool industry network;
•
network of wool industry researchers;
•
wool market intelligence; and
•
strategic planning.
AWI also provides technical advice to woolprocessing mills globally. This advice is
designed to help wool textile companies apply
the results of R&D for the direct benefit of their
business.
AWI has a strategic plan that includes textile
technology. Examples of R&D co-investments in
this area include:
improved methods of processing that are
cheaper and more competitive with synthetic
methods, eg the adaption of the high-speed
Murata Vortex Spinning system to spin wool
and wool blends;
•
textiles with better performance, eg a new
bi-layer wool/cotton fabric that provides the
wearer with the warmth of wool and the
economy of cotton; and
•
revolutionary wool directions, eg using
conductive wool fabrics for electric blankets
without the hard-wired heating elements.
>>
How AWI interacts with players in the textile wool pipeline
Early stage
processors
Products:
Clean wool and tops.
AWI role:
• AWI partners with
early stage processors
(scourers, carders,
combers, top makers
and dyers).
•
AWI invests in
technologies that
enhance productivity
and efficiency levels.
Example:
Michell Australia Pty Ltd
(Australia)
Spinners
Products:
Woollen, worsted
and knitted yarns.
AWI role:
• AWI invests with yarn
spinners in machine
innovations.
•
Investment results in new
and higher productivity
processing techniques.
Example:
Südwolle GmbH & Co KG
(Germany)
CONSUMERS
Weavers
and knitters
Garment
manufacturers
Distributors
and retailers
Products:
Woven and knitted
textile fabrics.
Products:
Wholesale garments
and end-products.
Products:
Retail garments.
AWI role:
• AWI invests with its
manufacturing partners
in developing innovative
new fabrics.
AWI role:
• AWI engages with
garment and other endproduct manufacturers.
•
These fabrics are for
both the apparel and
non-apparel markets.
Example:
Jiangsu Sunshine Group
(China)
AWI and The Woolmark Company
AWI is a separate company to The Woolmark Company (TWC). The primary
focus of AWI is on investing in R&D activities aimed at increasing the long-term
profitability of Australian woolgrowers.
TWC’s primary focus is on providing specialist wool marketing and technology
services to industry and retail on a commercial basis. TWC owns and licenses
the Woolmark brand. TWC is a wool textile organisation that specialises in the
commercialisation of wool technologies and innovations, technical consulting,
business information, marketing services and commercial testing of wool fabrics.
TWC is often a key participant in AWI projects. TWC-owned product
technologies commercialised and branded as SportwoolTM and OptimTM are
the results of previous investment by Australian woolgrowers in R&D.
•
These manufacturers
develop new wool
products made out of
fabrics created using
AWI innovation.
AWI role:
• AWI liaises with retail
companies who sell
products, made using
AWI-funded research,
to consumers.
Examples:
Marks & Spencer (UK),
David Jones Limited
(Australia)
Example:
Marks & Spencer (UK)
AWI contacts
Textile technology project enquiries:
Graham Stewart
General Manager, Textile Technology
t +61 2 9299 5155
f +61 2 9299 9880
e grahamstewart@woolinnovation.com.au
Product development and
commercialisation enquiries:
Pascal Senkoff
General Manager, Trade Development
t +61 2 9299 5155
f +61 2 9299 9880
e pascalsenkoff@woolinnovation.com.au
Australian Wool Innovation Limited
ABN 12 095 165 558
Level 5, 16-20 Barrack Street
Sydney NSW 2000
GPO Box 4177 Sydney NSW 2001
www.wool.com.au
ISBN 192 090 8145 6/10/2005
MILL