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Lanado is:
100% PURE BELGIAN WOOL
A HIGH-END DUVET,
PRODUCT OF THE KNOW-HOW OF OUR REGIONS AND OUR BUSINESSES.
Ø Sheep farmers in our regions took care of their flock to allow them to produce the best wool.
Ø A wool trader from Verviers chose, sorted and harvested the most suitable wool for making a light, puffy, high-end duvet.
Ø A wool-scouring mill in Verviers, whose quality is renowned worldwide, handled the processing.
Ø Wool is evolving and adapting to current needs: it is processed to be machine washable (30°C wool setting) and undergoes anti-dust mite treatment, and is a high-end Belgian product of Temse, Flanders.
Ø We entrusted the processing to a neighbouring associate, whose technology and know-how meet the highest quality standards.
A LOCAL & ETHICAL PROJECT
Wool production: sheep farmers in Belgium
Trade and coordination: DBCwool S.A. (Verviers)
Wool scouring: Traitex (Verviers)
Wool washability: Van Riel (Temse)
Duvet manufacturing: Neighbouring country
Marketing: LANADO (Stoumont)
How it all started!
Wool is a living and noble material, which is a bit forgotten and discarded nowadays. Selling and promoting it around the world is exciting! Such is the challenge DBCwool faces on a daily basis: tailoring wool to current tastes, (re)fostering the desire to own it!
DBCWool has been based in Verviers under different names since 1938. Verviers, globally-renowned former wool centre. Although seriously weakened, the wool business is still present there. Wool trader, i.e., a company that buys and sells wool... yes, but that's not all!
First, because DBCWool does not buy just any type of wool: the company is specialised in wool specifically for high-end bedding. Wool bought directly from farmers or collectors must meet several criteria: the wool is selected for its curliness, puffiness, length as well as its cleanliness. Coloured wool is equally excluded. All this to allow DBCWool clients to easily manufacture products that are high-end, uniform in their colour, devoid of plant residue, puffy, flexible and comfortable such as duvets, pillows, mattress toppers, futons, etc. DBCWool also regularly buys wool sorted on the table, where the wool from the belly and thighs, which is more yellow and dirtier, is discarded. The purchased greasy wool is thus selected based on its end use, and, for DBCWool, quality control at this stage is a priority as it determines the quality of the finished product.
Then, DBCWool is not a “simple” wool trader as it does not sell the purchased wool as is, rather after proper scouring, by working contractually with its neighbour Traitex, the only remaining industrial wool-scouring mill in Europe! A wool-scouring mill globally renowned for the quality of its processing. This proximity enables DBCWool to remain in charge of the scouring process and to easily mix the various greasy wool batches to better meet its clients’ demand.
Other treatments may also be applied at the request of the client. Wool is evolving and adapting to current needs: it can be processed to be machine washable (30°C wool setting) and undergo anti-dust mite treatment, and is also a high-end Belgian product. Such is the speciality of our associate Van Riel based in Temse. Only company capable of implementing this wool processing in Europe.
DBCWool, is also respect for wool, with “Oeko-Tex 100” and “Woolmark” certifications for all its products. The first label, Oeko-Tex 100, guarantees, after analysis, zero harmful substances (herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals, etc.) for the human body. The second label, “Woolmark”, guarantees that the product is 100% pure virgin wool, without any extra inferior materials. DBCWool, has obtained for some of its products, the Organic Textiles GOTS certification delivered by ECOCERT.
In figures, DBCWool SA, is:
DBCWool, thus imports raw wool and exports wool in the form of semi-finished products.
But, what’s going on at home, in BELGIUM?
Since 2010, Dominique Blandiaux (one of the administrators of DBCWool) has been working on the creation of a local wool sector
The wool situation in our country was sad in 2010! Wool was relegated to waste status by sheep farmers as it is less valued and less profitable. It was often easy to sell to an exporter who would send it as is to China... a net loss for our industry: loss of raw material, loss of the added value arising from processing all this wool locally. Belgian wool producers were completely disorganised; there wasn't any real network or real market. Further, wool had been forgotten by the consumer who was no longer aware of its benefits and who was unaware of how its processing has evolved making it a high-end, soft, flexible and easy-to-maintain product.
These observations gave rise to a desire, an idea: A DUVET IN 100% PURE BELGIAN WOOL. An ethical, natural, comfortable finished product that promotes our local wool, our companies and their ancestral know-how.
But, the project was sizeable as it meant launching it in the face of numerous unknowns: where to harvest the wool? How can the quality of the greasy wool obtained be ensured? How should the harvest be organised? Who should be sought to manufacture the wool blankets that would be used to fill in the duvet? Who should be sought to manufacture the duvets? The great project of a local wool distribution network helped take the leap and bring the project to fruition.
That is the starting point of the adventure of the 100% pure Belgian wool duvet.
REORGANISING WOOL COLLECTION IN WALLONIA
The basis of success! A compulsory stage for obtaining a high-end finished product, capable of dethroning the supremacy of the feather and the duvet, and restoring wool to its noble pedigree. Extensive work set up and coordinated by Dominique Blandiaux thanks to the dynamic support and awareness work and the federation of the WOOL SECTOR and the FICOW (inter professional sheep and goat farming federation of Wallonia) among a maximum number of farmers (about a dozen in 2012). Currently, DBCWool harvests wool from over 300 professional farmers, enthusiasts and shearers from the provinces of Luxembourg, Liege, Namur and Hainaut. A fine demonstration of confidence and commitment.
Thanks to the specifications and the shearing tips delivered by DBCWool and thanks to its dissemination through WOOL SECTOR and FICOW, the farmers were better informed about the principles to respect in order to obtain quality wool that is easy to market.
For white wool, without excessive chaff, claws, droppings or dampness, the price paid is slightly higher than the market price.
The various bales of wool are ranked under 4 categories, while explaining the choice to the farmers:
Category A: white, puffy, clean wool – wool used for manufacturing the finished product and to which a bonus will be assigned.
Category B: white, puffy wool that is not sufficiently clean.
Category C: coloured, rugged wool, intended to be isolated.
Category D: white wool but filled with plant residue that should be carbonised to make it usable (additional treatment during scouring, to dissolve all of the plant residue using acid). DBCWool will rather use it for isolation products to avoid the treatment.
It is a LOCAL & ETHICAL PROJECT:
DBCWool will pay a bonus per kilo of wool to each farmer who delivers category A wool, based on the portion of the farmer’s wool that has been used or will be used to manufacture finished products.
The aim of the project is to promote local wool locally, to allow every person interests’ to be met, from producer to consumer, to the processor who takes the risk of testing and marketing a new product.
Lastly, in late 2012, the new project was born! The fruit of extensive labour, extensive experience in the wool profession, and simply the desire to share a passion for natural fibres:
HIGH-END DUVET & BEDDING ITEMS manufactured with 100% PURE WOOL from our sheep!
The products sold by LANADO are available on the website www.lanado.be
LANADO, equally managed by Dominique Blandiaux, also handles the marketing and commercialisation.
The reception of this new project and its new products is excellent. The LANADO duvets in 100% PURE BELGIAN WOOL are drawing media attention. They provide great support in launching the sales of the wool duvets. Radio interviews, TV reports (RTBF News on 2 occasions), articles in local newspapers, page in “Psychology Magazine”, etc. For a first year, the sales are promising and help produce a second series of duvets, along with pillows! Already a new product! Which allows our farmers, suppliers of quality A wool, to obtain a second bonus.
At the request of consumers, sales outlets are opening up. We can now satisfy e-commerce and brick-and-mortar clients.
The adventure continues, the project is expanding. LANADO is diversifying its products and is broadening its distribution network.
A local Belgian distribution network that caters to the interests of every stakeholder. Belgian wool is now bought and processed by Belgian companies, an added value that remains in Belgium and allows our facilities to operate.