Antich & Sons (Huddersfield) Ltd
H. Dawson
By managing the entire supply chain, H. Dawson is able put more money back into the farmers’ hands and play an important role in creating positive environmental impact. “We’re working with farmers,” says Jo, “and managing the product as far down the supply chains as we can to ensure they get paid the right price, and we can support them to transition to regenerative agriculture.” “Since we created the Woolkeepers, we have put more than £3 million more into those farms’ pockets,” says Jo, “so, in terms of impact, we’re already helping to create a very significant positive impact.”
Nobel Prize,” says Jo. “It has so many clever characteristics. What I like is that we aren’t just in textiles, we’re effectively in environmental activism, but aligned with a commercial model.” At the heart of H. Dawson sits a project called Woolkeepers, a community of around 800 farmers producing the highest quality wool in an environmentally positive way. The wool is fully certified and 100% traceable. The company hand inspects each fleece produced before processing it to create high-value fibres and finished products. It also partners with fashion brands, furniture manufacturers, outdoor clothing companies and interior designers who take the fibres and products to create high-value, high-performance products.
Today H. Dawson is a very different business, one that is shaped around Jo’s passion for both product and planet. No longer just a broker of wool, H. Dawson aims to drive positive environmental impact through wool. of synthetic fibres, a global surplus and trade policies that incentivised overseas production left farmers receiving a little as 5p per kilo. It cost more to shear a sheep than farmers were making from the wool. Even today, most farmers are producing wool at a loss. About 25 years ago, UK prices for wool had collapsed. A rise in the production There was clearly an economic imperative to change but, for Jo, there was also an opportunity to convert the landmass used by sheep to address climate change. “If you were to invent wool today, in a lab, you’d get the
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