In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

SPINNING A COMPANY ON EARTHY FIBERS

In Business, March/April, 2004, Vol. 26, No. 2, p. 20

Turning corn fiber into yarn for blankets fits well into a Minnesota mill's philosophy
of using renewable products.

Dan Lemke

SETTING itself apart from the competition has kept Faribault Mills of Faribault, Minnesota in business for 140 years. This year, the woolen mill weaved a new pattern into its colorful history by using a patented fiber made from corn polylactic acid.
The firm's president Mike Harris and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Melchert discovered the polylactic acid fiber in Germany at an international textile show in 2002. Cargill Dow, two companies with a joint patent on Ingeo, were promoting it as a filling. But Melchert, a 30-year Faribault Mills employee, convinced Harris that they should try turning the corn fiber into yarn for blankets. Ingeo, which means “from the earth,” fit with the company's philosophy of using renewable and recyclable products.
“We began with something that was earth sensitive as a way to replace chemical-based acrylics that were used in some blankets,” Melchert says. After much trial and error, he perfected a fiber-processing method that met the company's performance standards. “It's not only earth-friendly, it's a very good product.” The delicate, silken-textured Ingeo is exceptionally strong, easy to clean and holds dye well.
“We thought we had a product that was pretty darn nice. But at the end of the day, we weren't really sure how it would be received by consumers,” Harris says. “I'm pleased to say that, first and foremost, people love the blanket ... that it's made from a recyclable, renewable resource is a secondary feature.”
Faribault Mills now makes 100 percent Ingeo and wool-Ingeo blankets and throws as well as its traditional 100 percent wool products. With worldwide rights to make and distribute Ingeo, Harris says the polylactic-acid fiber could yield Faribault Mills as much as a 30 to 40 percent sales growth.
Ingeo is produced by converting corn into sugars. The sugars are fermented and converted to a polylactic acid, which Cargill Dow named NatureWorks PLA. The PLA is then extruded into Ingeo fibers, which arrive at the Faribault mill in bales weighing several hundred pounds each.
A MIX OF TRADITION AND INNOVATION
The only difference between making Ingeo and wool blankets is the fiber - the production process is the same, and it has changed little over the past decades. Except for a few modern pieces, such as computerized looms, the inside of Faribault Mills looks much like it did 50 years ago. Some of the equipment is older than the employees who operate it. Since it is the only woolen mill left in the country, finding replacement equipment isn't easy.
Wool that comes into the mill is washed, dried, blended, combed, spun, twisted, dyed and woven as it has for generations. The end products - blankets and throws - are marketed by catalogers such as Lands End and Eddie Bauer, and retailers such as Marshall Fields, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Saks. The mill also produces thousands of promotional products for clients such as Mercedes Benz, Lear Jet, Yahoo, and professional and college sports teams. It also produces fire-safety, stadium and horse blankets.
Faribault Mills uses about one million pounds of wool each year, but Harris says the company hopes to double that in the next 12 to 18 months. He also expects to use significantly more Ingeo fiber as Faribault Mills expands its 140-year-old brand.

Dan Lemke is communications director with Ag Innovation News, published by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, based in Waseca, Minnesota. This report is reprinted with permission from AURI. Lemke can be contacted via email at: dlemke@auri.org. For information about products available from the Minnesota mill, visit: www.faribaultmills.com.

OLDEST WOOLEN MILL IN THE NATION IS THE “LUCKIEST”
WHEN you're the last to survive, it means you're either the luckiest or the dumbest,” says Mike Harris, president and CEO of Faribault Mills. “I really believe we're the luckiest.”
In the late 1800s, there were about 800 other woolen mills across the central United States. Founder Carl Klemer, a German immigrant, realized his company needed to be exceptional. By controlling everything under exacting specifications - from wool cleaning and dyeing to designing and manufacturing blankets - Klemer believed he could make a product superior to his competitors. It was a wise move; Faribault Woolen Mills grew, prospered and built a reputation for quality.
That didn't prevent the mill from falling on hard times.
After decades of success and prosperity, the family-owned business started failing in the 1990s. The company didn't automate its processes and was largely a niche-market player, Harris says. Also, one of the mill's key products - wool airline blankets - suffered a major sales slump from declining air travel that resulted from the Gulf War. In 1998, the Klemer family lost their business to an investor group, which staved off bankruptcy and closure of the mill.
Harris, a security industry veteran and one of the investors, started running the company in 2001. Two years later, Faribault Woolen Mills expanded into cotton blankets and throws by acquiring Beacon Blankets of Westminster, South Carolina. The combined companies are now known as Faribault Mills. “We avoided bankruptcy and we're hiring new people,” Harris says. “We're making history by working with new fibers and finding new opportunities ... It's extremely rewarding.” - D.L.