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An iconic Adelaide-based knitting mill that has been in business for 73 years has been whisked away from the chopping block thanks to a last-minute fundraising campaign led by Sunset Lovers founders Dean and Melanie Flintoft, which means Silver Fleece will be reopening its doors and preserving 20 jobs.
After going into administration, it was resolved at a general meeting on 26 June that Silver Fleece be wound up, prompting several fashion industry leaders including the Flintofts to spearhead a campaign to rescue the business, keeping manufacturing and skills in Australia.
The Flintofts have revealed that the campaign to secure Silver Fleece's assets, requiring support of $1 million, was successful and they are taking over the reins today.
The couple were awarded the assets of the company on 9 August by the liquidators, and their business Sunset Lover will join Silver Fleece's list of clients that also includes Cricket Australia, and private and public schools nationwide.
"We get the ‘keys’ today and will immediately reassure all existing customers of our renewed operations, well-capitalised status, and continued commitment to excellence, whilst concurrently building a new portfolio of clients to further strengthen our position and get the mill operating at 100 per cent capacity,” the Flintofts say in a statement.
"Our ethos is to manufacture exceptional, proudly Australian-made products. With our industry experience and commitment to sustainable fashion moving forward, and the overwhelming response to our capital raising campaign - we are confident that we can revitalise Silver Fleece and make our investors happy because Australians do care about where ‘their clothing’ is made.
"We can't wait to bring other Australian companies into the fold that care about Australian manufactured garments like we are."
Existing contracts prior to the administration only had the mill operating at 50 per cent capacity, so Silver Fleece will be targeting new customers in the form of luxury fashion brands, corporates, government, healthcare operators, sporting clubs and schools.
Silver Fleece is equipped with state-of-the-art Shima Seiki Japanese knitting machines, known in the industry as the best in the world.
Over the coming months the new owners will introduce a brand new Shima Seiki Wholegarment knitting machine to improve the capabilities and efficiency of the factory, to further leverage the recent fundraising campaign which undeniably demonstrated Australians' passion for sovereign manufacturing.
"The iconic Australian-owned mill that honours the beautiful Australian artisan craft of knitting wool has been preserved and we would like to offer our heartfelt thanks to everyone, including people like the CEO of the Australian Fashion Council, Jaana Quaintance-James who believes in this craft like we do - we won’t let you down," the new owners say.
"There is so much opportunity to revitalise this mill and we now have enough capital to reinvigorate local manufacturing, protect Australian craftsmanship and the Australian wool industry."
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