Mohair Craft History

The History of Mohair Craft New Zealand          

John Woodward grew up in the rolling green hills of Waikaretu that epitomises the typical New Zealand farming landscape. His interest in the Mohair industry began when shearing sheep and goats early in his working days. John would sometimes find himself heading out to muster wild goats from the surrounding hills and bush to grow his initial flock. His love for the animals and the fibre has grown through time into the wealth of knowledge he shares within the New Zealand goat industry today.

Realising the potential of goat farming early on, and knowing the quality of the fibre they produced he made the move into full-time goat farming and fibre classification with his wife Anne at his side. They enjoyed the ride the goat industry gave at that time. With ever increasing mohair prices and demand, his flock of goats grew to over 1000 head of stock as did his contact base within the Mohair industry reaching worldwide. Alongside his family also grew rapidly and reached 6 head in total by 1982! (Anne was left to cope with the four kids while John stuck to developing the mohair trade.)

John was highly involved in a large classing and sorting Mohair enterprise when the free ride ended in the late 1980's, the demand dropped away and prices slumped. He realised there were still many keen producers of mohair in New Zealand and at that time a high demand for a collection point in the North Island. With the support of Anne they went it alone and set up Mohair Fibres Ltd (1991) using the contacts John had already established over the previous 10 years. John now classes the majority of the North Islands Mohair.

Mohair Craft came about when John and Anne opened their first retail outlet. John wanted to put on show the quality goods you can produce using Mohair and educate the New Zealand public who had very limited Mohair products available at that time. John started to buy some of the Mohair himself to be put into specialty products that show the true value of the fibre. Only the finest Kid Mohair is retained for the production of Mohair Craft products. The Kid mohair products include blankets/throws, yarn, socks, scarves etc.

Mohair Craft now has two stores in Auckland located in Motorway service centres at Dairy Flat and Papakura. The shops boast a large range of Possum Merino products which has experienced high demand over the last five years and continues to be a strong seller.  To complement the Natural fibres our stores are brimming with unique New Zealand made giftware, souvenirs and crafts. There are gifts for all occasions.

These shops were managed by Debra Macmillan who has worked for John and Anne for many years, firstly as a classer and has good knowledge of the fibre and the Mohair Industry.