Norway-based knitwear manufacturer and retailer Devold, will make use the Australian wool industry as part of its marketing strategy. This would be in the form of a sales and marketing partnership with select fine wool producers. Devold is a Norwegian name with a long pedigree in the business of warm clothes, in a climate where warmth is a necessity. The company, established in 1853, initially started with knitting and selling sweaters made of wool for the inner region fishermen on the west coast of Norway.

Warm woolen undergarments from Devold were part of the expedition equipment for Norwegian explorers Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen. About the same, the company has claimed that it used those expeditions as a proving ground for their product.

Devold’s CEO Catherine Stange says, the company had made a gradual move into a different part of that market. The company moved gradually using Merino wool into the base-layer segment which is now a very big part of the company’s business. A part of the company’s evolution, lies in increasing opportunities to manufacture woollen garments, not just for the outdoors and sports, but also moving into other segments of the market like lifestyle products, she added. But that is a big market in Europe and Devold has been looking for a way to market its high end products that would give them a point of difference