ORGANISATION
Godfrey Hirst Carpets
ESTABLISHED
1865 as a woollen manufacturing company.
Began manufacturing carpet in 1963.
LOCATION
Victoria (Australia), Canada, Hong Kong,
New Zealand, Singapore, UK and the USA.
SPECIALISING IN
Carpet manufacturing
EMPLOYEES
1050 in Australia. 1600 worldwide.
GROSS TURNOVER
$360m Australia
$440m worldwide
MARKETS
Domestic 85% : International 15%
HIGHLIGHTS
Used 26 to 28 micron wool, which is readily available in Australia but not generally used for carpet, and developed a new type of carpet that is sold in international markets.
www.godfreyhirst.com
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‘THE KEY DRIVERS OF INNOVATION’
John Garrett, Director, Godfrey Hirst Carpets
INDUSTRY NEEDS TO BE INNOVATIVE
Godfrey Hirst Carpets is the largest producer of carpet in the Southern Hemisphere, manufacturing about 600 kilometres of carpet every month. Director, John Garrett recognises Australia is ‘just a very small market, stuck in the South Pacific somewhere’ which, in his view, is why industry needs to be ‘very agile, we need to be very innovative.’
According to John, if Godfrey Hirst Carpets was an American company it might make ten similar products but, as a consequence of market size, his company makes 200 products across the whole series of different fibre types. Faced by such a challenge, John recognises that innovation, whilst clearly about being able to develop products and processes for today, must reflect ‘where we want to be in the future.’
UNIQUE DEVELOPMENT
As the largest producer of wool carpet in the world Godfrey Hirst Carpets has been particularly active in the research and development of suitable wool products.
John Garrett explains that the manufacture of carpet typically requires a yarn of between 32 and 34 micron. John says, ‘there’s very little of it available in Australia, there’s a lot of wool in 26 to 28 micron, so with the Australian Wool Corporation we developed a product using that particular micron count which is a unique development which we now sell in international markets.’
‘We have problems in being a large scale business in a small scale market so that in itself has been one of the key drivers of innovation within our business.’
John Garrett, Director, Godfrey Hirst Carpets
LOOKING AT THE LONG TERM
As part of its policy of looking at innovative practices and investments based on the medium and long term view, Godfrey Hirst Carpets has a number of major projects which derive from the company’s high level of water use. ‘In some cases’ John says, ‘we’re recycling water up to ten times in ten different processes.’
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Industry Innovation Councils:
WEB www.innovation.gov.au/industryinnovationcouncils
EMAIL innovationcouncils@innovation.gov.au
PHONE +61 2 6213 7221
Manager
Industry Innovation Councils Team
Department of Innovation,
Industry, Science and Research
GPO Box 9839
Canberra ACT 2601