Wool News

'Made to last': More than 100 years old, Canadian wool company thrives in changing knitting market

Written by Heather Barrett - CBC Tuesday, February 18, 2020

'Made to last': More than 100 years old, Canadian wool company thrives in changing knitting market

Briggs & Little survives by keeping its yarn and its business old school, natural and on a small scale

Heather Barrett · Posted: Feb 14, 2020 4:14 PM ET | Last Updated: February 14

From left to right: Mike Little, the fourth-generation owner-operator of Briggs & Little, with his sons John and C.J., who work on the factory floor. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

Briggs & Little's knitting yarn is a bit scratchy and has a faint whiff of its barnyard origins.

But in today's $2.8-billion North American knitting market, both the yarn and the small Canadian company that makes it have proved to be surprisingly durable.

"Part of the appeal to our customers is that we're just real people like anyone else," said John Little, the recently retired, third-generation owner and operator of the family-run company.

Located in York Mills, N.B., the mill started in 1857 and changed ownership and names over the years. In 1916, the business became Briggs & Little Woolen Mills Ltd., making it Canada's oldest continuously-operating woollen mill and one of the few remaining woollen mills left in North America.

The first thing you notice when you enter Briggs & Little's woollen mill is the smell of wet sheep.

"After a while you'll grow to really like it," laughed Mike Little, the mill's current owner-operator, and John's son. Mike is the fourth-generation Little to run the mill.

John Little, the third-generation owner-operator of Briggs & Little Woolen Mills Ltd., in front of the mill's world headquarters in York Mills, near Harvey Station, N.B. Pictured at right: Briggs & Little yarn ready to be shipped to customers.

The mill takes freshly-shorn sheep's wool, most of it from Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers in Carleton Place, Ont., and the rest from individual farmers, and turns it into yarn in a rainbow of colours.

Link to full Briggs & Little story on CBC

Link to download of full story as PDF

4H members info night

Written by CCWG Thursday, August 3, 2017

CCWG Wingham Wool Depot hosted an information evening for the local 4H members.

Over 45 4H members and their parents spent the evening learning different aspects of the wool industry in Canada from care of the animals to producing the best fleece possible, shearing techniques, wool skirting to wool grading.

It was an informative night for the next generation of sheep farmers.