A company based in Co. Offaly is aiming to market fully traceable bedding products made using wool from Irish farms.
Dooleys Wool is situated at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains close to the borders with counties Laois and Tipperary.
The company, which produces wool pillows, duvets and mattress toppers, is beside the Dooley farm which is now on its eighth generation.
Irish wool
Kevin Dooley showcased his products to the public at the wool marquee which was part of the recent Dingle Food Festival in Co. Kerry.
“About 70 years ago my father started off as a sheep shearer, then he progressed into a wool merchant and then I joined the company in 2002. We were buying and exporting wool.
“In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, wool wasn’t moving. We were in dire straits.
“We knew how good the properties in wool were and we knew it could work in insulation or bedding.
“I decided why don’t I just get the wool and put it in bedding and see how we go,” Kevin told Agriland.
The entrepreneur, who sells his products online, was given encouragement and support from local Offaly LEADER development programme.
Kevin said that Dooleys Wool is hoping to help sheep farmers who have seen the price of wool collapse in recent years.
The company currently has around five sheep farmers supplying wool for the bedding products.
The products are generally made using white lowland wool from sheep breeds, including Texel, Suffolk, Dorset Down and Lleyn.
“What we want to do is get the farmers wool in, try get a premium back to the farmer, get it in our products and then replace synthetic eventually,” he said.
Traceability
The next phase for Dooleys Wool will include another pool of farmers who will provide full traceability for the wool.
“We have a programme in place at the moment through the Irish Grown Wool Council where eventually we will have a quick response (QR) code on all our products where the customers will be able to scan the product and on their phone will appear the group of farmers that have contributed their wool to that product.
“It will be fully traceable for the consumer back to the primary producer, the farmer.
“The idea is that we hope that the consumer would maybe pay a little extra premium that we can pay the premium back to the farmer,” Kevin said.
Dooley hopes if this initiative is successful it can be replicated by other companies to use Irish wool.
“If you take it back to 30 years ago where wool was the main product in Ireland, synthetic then came in, it was a cheaper alternative but it was more damaging to our environment.
“What we are seeing now is that there’s a generation coming, and even the older generation who remember the bed blankets, there’s a massive awareness from them now about what they are sleeping in.
“We see that people want to replace the synthetics with natural wool fibre,” he said.
Kevin explained that the natural properties of a wool duvet can help to regulate a person’s body temperature while they sleep.
“Since I started with the pillows and the bedding in particular it’s been a gradual progression. It’s not going to happen overnight but if we can get the education out there and tell people what we have,” he said.