WANGARATTA Woollen Mills and associated company Australian Country Spinners have been bought by a similar Bendigo-based business.
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Bendigo Woollen Mills confirmed the purchase on Monday in a move which makes it the biggest manufacturer and distributor of hand-knitting yarn in Australia and New Zealand.
The Wangaratta mill is a larger operation and has four times the sales of Bendigo and produces 2.5 times as much product.
Bendigo Woollen Mills owner and founder Colin Walker said the Wangaratta business was scaling back its staff levels in recent times, but he was keen to ensure it had a viable future in Australia.
“I wanted to invest in these iconic Australian yarn brands, so their future as truly Australian Made products is now assured,” he said.
“Our plans for the Wangaratta site are now under review.
“We will have a better idea of the direction we will take after two months, but there is a great sense of history with the Wangaratta Woollen Mills.
“We will have ongoing plans for it, that could include turning it into a tourist mill.
There’s a great sense of history with the Wangaratta Woollen Mills and we will have ongoing plans for it, that could include turning it into a tourist mill
- Bendigo Woollen Mills owner Colin Walker
“In Bendigo, we have been expanding in recent years, adding another warehouse and half-a-dozen more staff.”
Wangaratta Woollen Mills opened in 1923, and manufactures brands including Patons, Cleckheaton, Panda and Shepherd.
Bendigo will manufacture these brands after the full takeover of Australian Country Spinners.
Wangaratta Woollen Mills couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday.
It presently employs around 100 people both at the Wangaratta site and in the pattern, design and marketing teams in Melbourne.
The Wangaratta Woollen Mills workforce peaked in the 1960s with an estimated 800 employees.
One of the biggest job cuts came in 2011 when it cut 49 jobs with a further 50-plus positions going about three years earlier.