Bremworth starts down path to bring yarn-making back to NZ

Thursday, 24 July 2025

Bremworth has had to take yarn from overseas in the past few years but will aim to source its product domestically once its new yarn-making facilities are up and running.

NZX-listed carpet-maker Bremworth has followed through on plans to rebuild key parts of its Awatoto plant in Hawke’s Bay, saying it will invest $6 million and bring back 40 jobs to its once-destroyed plant.

The yarn-making plant had been flooded during Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023, in which flood waters reached a depth of around two metres at the peak.

Afterwards, 118 people of the 150 staff working at the plant took voluntary redundancy. A skeletal staff had operated a dye house from the site from late 2023, and by the end of 2024 Bremworth said it planned to reinstate part of its yarn-making plant in Napier, without committing to a full rebuild.

Bremworth at Awatoto in Napier - waters reached as high as 2 metres across the industrial estate in Cyclone Gabrielle.

It had been using some offshore production of woollen yarn to fill the gap, but this morning’s announcement means the company will aim to once more be creating its woollen yarns domestically.

Bremworth chief executive Craig Woolford said the company would spend $6m on yarn-making equipment “to ensure greater efficiency, product and quality control and significant lead time improvements” in the process, while avoiding excess capacity. Lead times were expected to reduce from up to six months down to six weeks.

The plant would operate three shifts, 24 hours a day every weekday, and would hire up to 40 new staff to accommodate expected demand.

“The reinstated capacity brings Bremworth back to full operational strength, with both mills going to be able to meet current demands and support the company’s plans to scale for growing international demand,” said Woolford.

The first stage of the current equipment reinstatement is expected to be operational by the end of August, with a second stage three months later.

Woolford says the reconfigured site gives Bremworth the ability to scale quickly in response to export growth, including new interest from the US and Australian markets.

“If demand spikes, we’ve got capacity we can activate. Each new addition takes about three months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring online, but that’s a good problem to have,” he says.

Since declaring it was considering repowering its Awatoto site and today, Bremworth’s board has largely been replaced, with then-chief executive Greg Smith stepping down shortly thereafter. The company has since stepped back from a directive set by Smith to produce only wool carpets.

Scenes from flood-hit Awatoto, south of Napier, after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

Insurance

Bremworth not only had to completely reconfigure its supply chain but also took a financial hit after Cyclone Gabrielle, and was ultimately paid out $104.2m by its insurers.

But there are efforts under way to ensure the Awatoto area of Napier, which contains a lot of the south Napier workforce, is not affected to the same extent again. The location is very important to the country’s wool sector and also hosts WoolWorks’ wool scourer plant.

Bremworth is part of the Awatoto Industrial Action Group, which is working to develop a flood mitigation solution in conjunction with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Napier City Council to prevent a repeat of the impact to the business community in that location following Cyclone Gabrielle.

Work already under way includes upgrades to pump stations, permanent on-site backup power generators, seismic strengthening and improved telemetry systems to allow remote monitoring and management of the stations.

Work is also under way to look at further flood mitigation, including the possibility of developing secondary flood containment to further protect the industrial area.