Wool Academy with Elisabeth van Delden

Morten Dilling is the 4th generation working in the family company Dilling Underwear based in Denmark. Dilling Underwear was founded in 1916 and has since then reinvented its business model to adapt to modern times. Morten talks about why he joined the company in 2009. He also explains how he turned the company into an eco-friendly vertical B2C manufacturing and retail business.

Morten Dilling is the Concept Manager of Dilling Underwear based in Denmark. Morten is the 4th generation working in the company. Before joining the family company in 2009, Morten studied Business economics at Copenhagen Business school (CBS) from 2003 – 2007, and at the same time worked for www.icgroup.net from 2003 – 2009. Morten lives in Aarhus together with his girlfriend and their daughter. 

Piercarlo Zedda is one of two Directors of the family-owned business Pantex SPA based in Biella in Italy. The company is specialised in importing fine raw wool and manufacturing the wool into tops and open tops. On this episode, Piercarlo explains the difference between the many wool products available before spinning and weaving. He gives insights how the products are made and how they are used further down the supply chain. Amazingly, nothing in the wool supply chain gets wasted. Being an active member of the Italian and International wool textile industry, Piercarlo talks about the importance of working together as an industry to create a better future for wool.

Piercarlo Zedda is, together with his Brother Giovanni Zedda, the Director of the family-owned business Pantex SPA in Biella in Italy. The company sells scoured, carbonised wool as well as wool tops, open tops and noils. Already as a child, Piercarlo spent his time in the family wool warehouse learning about wool. Today, Piercarlo is also the Vice President of the International Wool Textile Organisation and the President of the Italian Wool Trade Association.

Nora Kuehner is a well-known trend expert for the fashion and sportswear industry. In this podcast episode, she talks about how trends develop and what skills are needed to become a trends expert. She identifies the key trends for the wool industry. These include sustainability, fast fashion vs. slow fashion and including the customer into the supply chain process. Nora says beautiful sentences such as 'Wool is a product for sustainable thinking and appreciating clothing' or 'You don't consume wool, you have it as a companion for life time'.

After training at the German Master School of Fashion in Munich, Nora Kühner gained her first professional experience as a full-time designer for fashionable sports and leisure wear. In 1987 she founded her own design studio. She successfully designs collections for renowned international companies in the sportswear industry. Until 2001, the focus of her design activities was on collections for ski, tennis, golf, football and fitness wear. Her design work is characterized by extensive experience, creativity and openness to new ideas. Complemented by personal, active commitment to creating successful solutions for the requirements of their customers. Nora Kühner gives lectures on topics such as trend developments and colours at important industry meetings, e. g. in Friedrichshafen on the occasion of the Outdoor or in Munich at the Performance Days. For many years, Nora Kühner has been committed to the issues of designers, primarily in the fashion and textile sector. These include, among others, since 1999 the voluntary counseling activity for the networks of expert counseling University of Hamburg and of the Women's Academy Munich (FAM). For almost 10 years Nora Kühner was responsible for the successful IDEAS trend colour chart. 

Kurt Haselwander is the CEO of the Austrian based Schoeller Spinning Group. In this Wool Academy Podcast episode, Kurt talks about the company's 170 year history and how it continued to adapt its strategy in order to be successful also in the 21st century. He explains the difficulties spinning companies based in Europe had to go through and what strategies helped the Schoeller Spinning Group to survive. These strategies include product innovation, environmental stewardship and getting closer to retailers and brands. 

Kurt Haselwander's main focus is on the innovative and sustainable use of wool in a wide variety of applications, such as the automotive industry and the development of technical and functional yarns. For many years he was mainly been responsible for the Schoeller production facilities, including wool finishing, dyeing and spinning. Since the beginning of 2014, he has been in charge of sales, purchasing and marketing. Kurt Haselwander also serves as the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Professional Association for Worsted Yarn Spinning in the Industrial Association of Yarns + Fabrics in Germany and of the Association of German Worsted Yarn Spinners. In addition, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Association of the German Wool Association and a board member of the German Industrial Association for Yarns and Technical Textiles. 

Luke Hooke started the Campaign Year of Wool where he challenged himself to wear only wool clothing for one entire year. His goal is to proof the many benefits of wool and promote the fibre as well as its industry. In this podcast interview, Luke talks about how he came up with the idea, what wool items were hard to get a hold of and what his experience has been so far. He shares how he communicates about his experience online and on social media.

Luke Hooke is the young Australian behind Year of Wool, a project promoting wool clothing and the wool industry. For 365 days Luke is wearing only wool and wool blend clothing to demonstrate the versatility and incredible natural qualities of wool and wool clothing. Having grown up on a wool growing farm in Victoria, Australia, Luke is now exploring the post farm-gate part of the wool industry, promoting the wonderful fibre that is wool while also learning more about the industry.

Louis de Beer is the CEO of Cape Wools, an industry association representing the interests of the South African wool industry. In this episode, Louis gives insights into the South African wool industry and explains what makes South African merino wool special. Louis also tells the success story of local communal farming projects in the Eastern Cape.

Louis de Beer is the Chief Executive Officer of Cape Wools SA. Prior to accepting the position at Cape Wools in 2011, Louis gained extensive managerial experience in the SA wine, fruit and fishing industries whilst living his passion for agriculture. Cape Wools is the official industry representative organisation of the South African Wool Industry, and that represents the collective interests of the wool producers, wool buyers and processors, wool brokers and traders, small stock breeders, labour and the wool testing group. Cape Wools promotes the wool communities’ interests within South Africa and internationally in partnership with the other great wool producing nations of the world. Louis currently serves as a council member of the Campaign for Wool and represents SA's interests at International Wool Textile Organisation.

South African Wool Grower Geoff Kingwill, shares insights into what it is like to run sheep in the semi-desert of the Karoo. He explains how holistic management of sheep and land helps reverse desertification. Geoff also explains what all there is to achieve and gain when working together with all parts of the wool industry supply chain. Learn why there is never a typical day in the life of a wool grower, what the Geoff's different income streams are and how nature is challenging him and his sheep.

Geoff Kingwill is Chairman of the IWTO Sustainability Committee and serves on the Working Groups dealing with Animal Welfare and the Environmental Credentials of Wool. He runs a farm producing Merino sheep, Angora goats and beef cattle. Mr Kingwill is a past Chairman of both Cape Wools South Africa and the Western Cape branch of the National Wool Growers Association and is currently Vice Chairman of the board of BKB, a Wool Broker Business.

Cobus Ooosthuizen has always wanted to bust advertisement claims and proof them wrong. That is also why he took on the wool industry to proof the outrages claims the industry was making about wool as false. These claims about wool included that wool was soft, durable, cool when it is hot, warm when it is cold, breathable, UV protective, odour resistant etc. Cobus Oosthuizen tested a wool t-shirt during a 250 km running race for 6 days through the South African desert. Cobus talked about his experience with wool at the last IWTO Wool Round Table in South Africa. This episode is a live recording from the event. Listen to the amazing story of how Cobus ran for 6 days through the South African desert with temperatures of 42-52 degrees Celcius to test wool's marketing claims.

Dr. Oosthuizen is passionate about change…”that moment when you discover something and you know you can never go back to the way things use to be.” It is his drive and passion to see everyone have moments like these, leading them to more productive, effective, healthy and purposeful lives.” As the founder of LifeXchange and owner of LifeXchange Solutions, Cobus and his incredible team of experts are leading both communities, schools, and churches as well as small, medium and large business and corporate clients into effective mentoring and change management processes! Cobus is married, has an 8-year-old daughter, lives in Cape Town and is always ready to show you that you are more capable than what you could ever imagine!

Chantel McAlister is Australia’s only masterclasser and professional photographer. The fusion of her two careers has been the inspiration behind her national campaign, The Truth About Wool. In this episode, Chantel talks about her career in the wool industry, her love for wool, sheep, growers and photography and how she came up with the idea for her campaign.

Growing up in Brisbane, Chantel fell in love with a country boy and moved to his family’s sheep property in her early twenties. Her affinity with animals and love affair with country life, soon found her throwing herself into a career in the woolsheds. Her daily life in the woolsheds was always documented through her camera and Chantel soon turned her happy snapping hobby into a second profession in 2013. An advocate for the wool industry, her images provide an intimate look into to the shearing and wool industry. Chantel launched her Truth About Wool Campaign in 2015 to dispel any misconceptions about the wool industry and has now grown the campaign into a national tour. Chantel will continue touring Australia part time photographing the wool industry and telling stories of those who dedicate their lives to it throughout 2018 and 2019.

Andrew Cuccurullo is the CEO of Waverley Mills in Tasmania. Waverley Mills is the last remaining woollen mill in Tasmania. The weaving mill produces woollen blankets. When Andrew invested into the company in 2016, the mill was in bad shape and in urgent need of a rebranding and repositioning of its products. Andrew shares the story of how he implemented the new marketing strategy. He even goes into detail about his social media strategy, photo and video shootings and product design.

Andrew Cuccurullo has a history of clothing and knitwear manufacturing from the late 80’s-2000 working with Gowing Bros and many other retailers. Andrew was also involved with the surf label Insight. From 2001 – 2014, Andrew worked in the cutting edge of digital technologies for 14 years through start-ups he founded. Currently, Andrew is CEO of Waverley Mills. Andrew invested in Waverley Mills in April 2016 after seeing the potential of its products and its rich heritage. Since getting involved with the mill he has undertaken a rebranding and repositioning of its products in the marketplace.