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Speaker 1: With us right now? Is Jamie Mackay, Host of the Country.

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Speaker 2: Hey Jamie Evening, have it now?

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Speaker 1: What did you make of Bremworth deciding to do the

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Speaker 1: synthetic carpets again.

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Speaker 2: Well, it hasn't probably gone down well with some farmers,

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Speaker 2: but I think if you look at it from a distance,

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Speaker 2: it's probably a pragmatic decision. So they've reversed their wall

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Speaker 2: only policy and they're now going to start making synthetic

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Speaker 2: carpets as well. Now. They stopped producing synthetic carpets back

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty in favor of the wall only policy.

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Speaker 2: But there's been a recent shakeup on the board. You

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Speaker 2: might remember that Rob Hewitt, the new chair, ditched the

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Speaker 2: old board. He's the chair of Everything in New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: formerly Silver Firm, Farms and Farmlands. But he did it

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Speaker 2: off the back of falling revenue. The chief executive, by

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Speaker 2: the way, he was a victim. He stepped down recently

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Speaker 2: after four years. Agoy by the name of Greg Smith.

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Speaker 2: So revenue fell from one hundred and fifty million to

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Speaker 2: eighty million in the space of six years. I guess

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Speaker 2: they had to do something that the Hewitt said. The

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Speaker 2: decision to stop selling synthetic carpets in favor of wool

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Speaker 2: only products had not resulted in improved sales, while operating

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Speaker 2: costs had still remained high. He said not having synthetics

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Speaker 2: in their portfolio actually made things more difficult because their

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Speaker 2: customers wanted to sample both synthetics and wool and they,

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Speaker 2: says said, we need to spread our costs across the

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Speaker 2: wider base, and our customers are clearly looking for a

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Speaker 2: synthetic product, okay. And he also said having a complete

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Speaker 2: portfolio ie synthetics and wool will actually help them grow

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Speaker 2: their wall product sales. I hope so. Our Federated Farmers

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Speaker 2: not surprisingly Meet and Wool chair Toby Williams said the

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Speaker 2: wool industry was teating teetering and this would be another

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Speaker 2: knock for farmer confidence. He said it was disappointing but understandable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, because it's market reality, isn't it. But

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Speaker 1: how embarrassing for Bremworth because remember that campaign that they launched.

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Speaker 1: It was just so harsh about synthetic carpets and now

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Speaker 1: they're doing them again.

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Speaker 2: A bit of a backflip. I mean everyone's doing these days.

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Speaker 2: Look at Trump and his tariffs. Heather but look the

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Speaker 2: reality of it is, as much as we want to

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Speaker 2: use wall carpets and the government have been a champion

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Speaker 2: of that in there in their buildings, some people don't

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Speaker 2: want wall carpets. They want the cheaper synthetic option, which

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Speaker 2: may have some advantages. In an ideal world, we would

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Speaker 2: all we would, we would all choose wall carpets, but

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Speaker 2: ultimately the market will decide.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, brilliant, Jamie. It's good to talk to you as always,

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Speaker 1: talk to you in a couple of days. Jimmie McKay

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Speaker 1: hosts of the Country.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.