Out of Knockando and into the World!
Your chance to back an award winning Speyside Woolmill as it takes high quality Scottish products to the world.
This Campaign is an opportunity for you to support the continued development of Knockando Woolmill and the manufacture in and export from the Scottish Highlands of high-quality Scottish textiles such as designer scarves, stoles, handbags, throws and blankets as well as more traditional Scottish tweeds.
The primary reasons for this Campaign are:
• To enable manufacturing to continue at this historic Speyside Woolmill.
• To build the Knockando Woolmill brand.
• To accelerate our programme for exporting our unique Scottish-made high-quality products to the world.
About Knockando Woolmill
Knockando Woolmill is a Category A listed group of buildings in the Spey Valley. The Woolmill itself contains original textile machinery acquired over the centuries and has always been at the heart of the local community. Since at least 1784 the Woolmill has maintained its traditions of carding, spinning and weaving through generations of families.
By 2009 the Woolmill required complete restoration and was gifted by its previous owner to Knockando Woolmill Trust, a charity formed in Scotland to repair and restore the historic buildings and machinery. The Trust had successfully raised the funds to complete the restoration by 2014 and in 2016 the Woolmill was one of the winners of the Europa Nostra Award, a European prize for cultural heritage and Europe’s highest honour in the heritage field.
The Trust decided that to avoid the restored Woolmill becoming a sterile museum and to fund the Trust's charitable objectives of maintaining and improving the historic buildings and preserving traditional rural craft skills by training a new generation of craftswomen and craftsmen in the art of carding, spinning and weaving on the historic textile machinery, the Woolmill should continue manufacturing and selling high quality textile goods, both to visitors to the Woolmill and on-line to the wider world through its website. This the Woolmill has done since 2014, employing a number of local people in doing so.
You can find out more about our Woolmill, its history and its products here at our website: www.kwc.co.uk
Contribute Now!
The primary reasons for launching this Campaign are as follows:
• To enable manufacturing to continue at this historic Speyside Woolmill.
Since re-opening as a manufacturing Woolmill in 2014, Knockando Woolmill has successfully re-introduced long lost traditional carding, spinning and weaving practices to Scotland resulting in job creation and the design and manufacture of a range of bespoke textile products.
The Woolmill has attracted in excess of 20,000 visitors per annum a large percentage of which are from overseas and has been successful in selling its bespoke goods to those visitors.
• To build our Knockando Woolmill brand
In order to drive sales of our product at commercial rates and to build a more sustainable business for securing the future of the Woolmill and its employees, we must raise awareness of the Knockando Woolmill brand. Our strategy is to take this brand out into the world via a series of new channels, products and partnerships. This will include promoting and marketing the heritage of Knockando Woolmill at International Trade Shows and the appointment of Distributors in key international markets.
• To accelerate our programme for exporting our unique Scottish-made high quality goods to the world.
With assistance from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, we have identified an international sales strategy which will focus on exporting our goods to direct buyers in Japan, Germany and the USA as well as developing our on-line sales to overseas retail customers, particularly in Japan.
With the assistance of Scottish Development International, the Woolmill has put together a plan to visit Japan towards the end of 2018 to meet potential buyers with an interest in our products. This follows-up a successful visit to the Woolmill in June 2018 by the Japanese representative of the SDI, resident in Tokyo.
Funds raised in this Campaign will be used to invest in the manufacture of goods for export, to develop our export markets, to finance marketing advice on developing our Knockando Woolmill brand and to fund trade visits to potential overseas markets.
Why Donate?
Donate to the Knockando Woolmill and
• Become part of the Knockando family
• Help to ensure the survival of traditional rural crafts of spinning and weaving in the Scottish Highlands
• Help bring our high quality bespoke Scottish products from the Spey Valley to a worldwide market
• Enjoy the rewards associated with contributing to secure the future of Knockando Woolmill