AWI Business to Business Work in China
AWI has fostered many important business relationships in China, with some of the industry’s biggest manufacturers, to promote the use of Australian wool and develop new Merino products collaboratively.
Major Wool Textile Mills
Spring Bamboo Enterprise Development Co (knitting)
Spring Bamboo Enterprise Development Co (Spring Bamboo) was established in March 1998. It specialises in manufacturing knitwear garments. It has over ten knitting mills with 2500 pieces knitting machines of 3G-16G.
As a brand name, Spring Bamboo has its own design, production and sales teams. It has an annual production of 3 million pieces knitting garments, with 50 per cent for pure wool knitwear, 20 per cent for cashmere products and 30 per cent for garments of other fibers. Annual sales revenue is over 300 million Yuan. It has retail shops in most of the major cities in China. Products are also exported to Japan, Europe.
Heilan Group (vertical)
Heilan Group is one of China's biggest wool textile mills. It is also one of the largest men's-wear as well as corporate wear manufacturers in China. The company has an annual production capacity of 15 million meters of medium- and high-grade worsted fabric as well as 3,500,000 suits. 60 per cent of its products are for domestic market, and the remaining for overseas markets such as USA, Eruope, Japan, Singapore, and Korea.
Heilan entered into a commercial partnership with AWI in early 2005 to produce machine-washable wool-blend suits for retail in local China market. It aims to launch the suits in domestic market in second half of 2005.
Jiangsu Sunshine Group (vertical)
Jiangsu Sunshine Group was established in early 1980s and is the largest worsted enterprise in China. It has ten thousands of employees and produces 30,000,000 meters of worsted fabrics, 2,000,000 meters of woolen and cashmere fabrics, 1,500, 000 suits each year. Its products are both sold in domestic market and exported to the USA, Canada, Japan, Europe, Middle East, Hong Kong etc. It has set up a new joint-venture combing mill with Schneider Group, and trial production started in March 2004, and its annual production of wool tops is 20,000 tons.
Zhangjiagang Yangtse Spinning Co (spinner)
Zhangjiagang Yangtse Spinning Co Ltd (ZYS) is a German invested enterprise in China and it has 3 spinning mills located in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province. They were put into production in 1995, 1997 and 2002 respectively. With a total installed number of 80,000 spindles, ZYS has an annual capacity of 11, 000 tons of weaving and knitting yarn and is one of the largest worsted spinning mills in the world. It is equipped with the state-of-the-art machines.
Reward (Ningbo) Wool Industry Co (topmaker)
Reward Wool is a Taiwanese invested company and it was established in 1992 in Ningo Economic Development zone. The site encompasses over 230,000 square meters. Total investment so far is US$60 million. It has an annual capacity of nearly 20,000 tons of wool top and 9000 tons of carbonized wool and 4000 tons of super wash, soft luster, basolan treated wool. It is the largest topmaker in China.
Youngor Group (vertical)
Youngor Group is a well-known suit manufacturer in China. It was established in early 80's. It now manufactures about 1.7 million suits each year, with 1 million sets for the China market and the rest for the international market. Japan, USA and EU are its major export markets, with Japan taking about 150,000 pieces of pure wool suits each year. Youngor is a popular brand name in China, and has the largest share of the domestic market for its suits in the last three consecutive years.
Nanshan Group Worsted General Factory (vertical)
Nanshan Group Worsted General Factory was founded in 1997, and is now one of the biggest worsted fabric producers in China. The factory covers an area of 260,000 square meters and has a staff of 4500 employees. It has 60,000 spindles, and has an annual topmaking capacity of 3,000 tons. It produces 15 million meters of worsted fabrics each year for domestic market as well as overseas markets such as Japan, Korea, US, Italy. The factory is working with AWI on the pure wool business shirt.
Shandong Ruyi Group (vertical)
Shandong Ruyi Group is a manufacturer of worsted fabrics and high quality garments. It has more than 10 thousand employees. It annually produces 6 million meter high-quality worsted fabric and 1 million suits, half of which is uniform. It has recently won the bidding for supplying police uniform for France and uniform for China's biggest telecommunication company (China Unicom). Most of its products are exported to countries like Japan, Korea, Europe and America. It is setting up a topmaking facility, which will start operation in 2005. It is involved in AWI sponsored CAWIN R&D project with Donghua University.
Wuxi Xiexin Group (vertical)
Wuxi Xiexin Group is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of worsted wool fabric, weaving and knitting wool yarn, apparel and accessories. It has 38,000 spindles, with an annual production yield of 6 million meters of all wool worsted fabric, 3500 tons of weaving and knitting yarn and 200,000 sets of garment, of which 70 per cent are exported to more than 50 countries and regions.
Hubei Maiya Co (fabric maker)
The company was established in 1986 as a raschel blanket manufacturer. It has now developed into a well-known worsted fabric maker with an annual production of 3 million meters worsted fabrics, 2 million pieces raschel blankets. It was listed in Shenzhen Stock market in April 2000. Total output value in 2003 is 300 million Yuan.
The company uses 100 per cent Australian wool tops purchased from companies like Chargeurs and Schneider. The fabric products are sold in both domestic and international markets.
Novel Group
Novel Group is based in Hong Kong with production in Southern China. Its chairman is Mr Rodrigouz Yang. It has been well established spinning woolen yarns since 1976. It has built a reputation for quality both in traditional blends of wool, cashmere, Shetland and also in new blends with cotton, silk and luxury fibres. Novel is renowned for yarn innovation. It is working with AWI on a yarn development project.