Albany company fights imports
An Albany company producing natural sheep wool insulation continues to stand tall in the fight against imported fibreglass products.
Jumbuck Wool Insulation is WA’s only manufacturer, distributor and installer of natural wool insulation products, which it sends throughout the State and to NSW.
Owner Mick Pratt said it was a tough business battling against the big companies.
Added to that is the recent controversy surrounding the Rudd Government’s home insulation scheme continuing to dog the business, which has not changed its basic operations since it began producing natural wool batts as Wool Store Insulation.
Mr Pratt admits the company is only “chugging along” despite the growing need for more natural-based products in homes.
“People don’t realise that our woollen batts are made from a natural product, wool,” he said.
“It is a hangover from the controversy of the pink batts scandal.”
While the company is not breaking any financial records, Mr Pratt said he expected future growth as more homeowners sought the product when they understood its natural benefits.
The family-oriented company is unusual because there is no scouring plant in WA, so it has to import scoured wool from England, unable to bring Australian-wool product from Eastern States scourers because of State quarantine restrictions. Mr Pratt has plans to set up his own scouring machine, making the business self-sufficient using locally produced wool.
One of the employees who helps turn the wool into insulation is 75-year-old Bill Ible, who started with the business soon after it began in 1993.
He has worked with wool for the past 60 years, having moved to the wool insulation business from the Albany Woollen Mills when it closed, ending an association which began when he was 14, moving through the ranks from bobbin boy to factory manager.
Mr Ible took over the operation of a carding machine at the insulation factory, which was obtained from the mill. Its role is to straighten the wool fibre, which then goes through a cross lapper, the resulting fine sheet combined into 42 layers to make the 100mm-wide batts.
“I’ve never stopped working, although I only do about three hours a day now,” he said.
“Right up until a couple of years ago, I was working full-time.”
