9 May 2001

Media Release
Farming Media & Daily Media Farm Pages

Wool identity to retire

WoolPro managing director and industry identity Lance Wiggins will retire on 30 June.

A former Wool Board senior executive, he took over the reins of WoolPro in 1998 when the board spun-off its former wool production division as a separate venture.

WoolPro chairman Terry Heiler said Lance Wiggins’ achievements should not be obscured by the political shenanigans associated with the demise of the Wool Board.

“Lance and his staff have a string of firsts to their names which have been of great benefit to sheep farmers and the industry as a whole,” he said.

“Capless packs, quality assurance, the FITT (Farmer-Initiated Technology Transfer) programmes and Woolnet are just some of the projects which Lance initiated and promoted in the face of what was often quite vociferous opposition.

“All are successes and in due course, Woolnet is likely to become the main method by which wool is traded.”

Dr Heiler said achieving change in the wool industry has always been difficult but, thanks to a combination of imagination and determination, Mr Wiggins had succeeded where many others had failed.

“For the last six months Lance has been helping drive the development of a new organisation which will take over from WoolPro on July 1,” he said.

“The new WoolPro will be independent of the Wool Board and will have a sole focus on improving sheep farm profitability. It will co-ordinate research, extension and training more effectively than anything that has gone before.

“Lance has chosen not to be part of the new regime, but its success will in no small part be due to his vision.”

The chief executive of the new organisation will be Richard Gardner, who is currently WoolPro general manager.

Richard joined WoolPro two years ago as business development manager. He was formerly a marketing executive for an animal remedies company.

[ends]

For more information, contact:

Terry Heiler, tel 03-347 8365, or

Lance Wiggins, tel 04-471 4670