Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.03.2017, Qupperneq 16

ON THE VERY EDGE of Greater
Reykjavík, not far from the north-
bound Ring Road, sits an indus-
trial estate of vast factories and
warehouses. Tourists pass the
area in their thousands every day,
many of them on the way to the
Golden Circle. But little do they
know that behind the shutters of
one of these hulking buildings lies
Ístex, the company that manu-
factures the entirety of Iceland’s
commercially produced wool sup-
ply. Almost every authentically
Icelandic lopapeysa (“wool sweat-
er,” in English) begins its life here.
The 7500m Ístex factory is a
hive of activity. Workers buzz
around the cavernous space in
overalls, operating huge dryers
and spinning machines between
mini-convoys pulling around
heaps of wool in various stages of
processing. Hypnotic machines
tick away, carrying out all kinds
of repetitive tasks, from drying,
to spinning, to winding the wool
onto spindles en-masse.
Hulda Hákonardóttir, the com-
pany’s marketing manager, shows
us to the very back of the fac-
tory, where the wool first arrives
in large bales, from a facility in
North Iceland. These house-sized
stacks are pushed into industrial
washing machines, where the
wool is cleaned, dyed, and blended
into colour mixes. The tufts of
wool then pass through a complex
system of pipes and conveyor belts
before being blown into huge dry-
ing tanks, where they drift to the
floor like brightly coloured snow.
By the end of the process, pallets
of neatly packed wool balls emerge
in a rainbow of colours, boxed up
and ready to go out into the world.
The most
value possible
Guðjón Kristinsson is the manag-
ing director of Ístex. “Wool pro-
duction is a 120-year-old industry
in Iceland,” he explains. “Ístex
started 25 years ago, after the pre-
vious wool company, Álafoss, went
bankrupt. Álafoss started in 1896
and had 200 employees, trading
with Europe and the Soviet Union.
There were 2000 people working
in wool at its peak—they used to
knit, cut, sew and make clothes.”
When the Soviet Union col-
lapsed, Alafoss lost about half of
their business, and the company
went into receivership in 1991. “Ístex
was started for the farmers, to keep
up their production,” says Guðjón.
“47% is owned by three employees,
with rest owned by 2000 farmers
who are slowly buying it out.”
He tells us how there are
500,000 sheep in Iceland, from
which the 2000 farmers shear
1000 tonnes of wool a year. This is
reduced to 750 useable tonnes af-
ter washing; 400 tonnes of the best
material is processed into knitting
wool, with the second class remain-
der exported to the UK, mainly for
use in upholstery and carpets.
“We’re always trying to influ-
ence the farmers to treat their
sheep better, to up the quality of
the wool,” he explains, “to keep
them dry, and shear them before
they get dirty. They get a much
higher price for the best wool. Our
goal here is to create the most val-
ue possible of Icelandic wool, on
behalf of the farmers.”
Itchy and scratchy
One customer of Ístex is Páll Kr.
Pálsson, a businessman who’s the
owner and manager of Glófi, a tex-
tile company, and the founder of
VARMA (“Thermal,” in English).
Based in Reykjavík 108, VARMA
is a clothing design and manufac-
ture company whose products are
on sale all around Iceland.
“We buy the machine knitting
yarn we use in our VARMA prod-
ucts from Ístex,” says Páll. “We do
use some imported yarn mainly
for private label production, for
companies who want a different
kind of feel. Sometimes, they feel
Icelandic yarn is too itchy.”
Iceland’s northern climate
means that its sheep grow two
types of wool: a soft, inner insu-
lating fibre, and then an outer
layer that protects them against
wind and rain. So while Icelan-
dic wool is warm, breathable and
shower-proof, it’s itchy compared
to the softer wool produced in
warmer places.
Páll sees this as a challenge for
the whole industry. “I’ve spent a
lot of time constructing a research
and development project between
VARMA, Ístex and the Farmer’s
University,” he explains. “The aim
is to teach farmers to shear better,
and to sort into second class, first
class and gold class wool. Ístex
are buying new equipment to help
make the wool less stiff and itchy.
Then we are trying out different
methods with oils, natural soaps
and enzymes to soften the fibre.
These are the kind of things we
need to do to increase the market
for Icelandic wool.”
Made in Iceland?
Another challenge for VARMA
comes from the fact that the cloth-
ing market is increasingly competi-
tive, with cheaply made Icelandic-
style products being imported for
the tourist market, flooding shops
with low-priced alternatives.
“All our products are made in
Iceland,” he says. “It's a labour-
intensive industry, which is why
lots of textile companies have
moved their production to Turkey,
Romania or Asia. The labour costs
in China are 15% of what they are
here. So most hand-knitted Ice-
landic lopapeysur today come
from outside of Iceland."
Clothing companies know that
tourists want to take home some-
thing authentically Icelandic, and
employ a variety of labelling tech-
niques to create that impression.
“Some products are being sold as
‘Designed in Iceland,’ but they’re
manufactured in Asia using Austra-
lian or Chinese wool,” smiles Páll.
“There’s not much that’s Icelandic
about that. I think this is misleading
labelling—people obviously believe
these products are made in Iceland
when they buy them.”
Despite all these challenges,
Páll is determined to make it
work. “Wool production goes back
to the basics of Iceland,” he finish-
es. “A lot of people ask me: ‘Why
are you trying this?’ The busi-
ness was mostly bankrupt when I
went into it. But I felt I wanted to
do something connected to our
nature and the heritage. I fell in
love with idea of recreating the
market for Icelandic wool, using
the best materials, design and
production methods. We need
to rebuild the status of Icelan-
dic wool to where it should be.”
INDUSTRY
Made In Iceland
A look inside Iceland’s
120-year-old wool industry
Words JOHN ROGERS
Photos ART BICNICK
Share & Photo Gallery: GPV.IS/WOOL3
16 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 03 — 2017
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