Spinning wool since 1991

The Natural Fibre Company was started in Merthyr Tydfil by Myra Mortlock in 1991. It spun wool on a small scale, largely for smallholders, and was effectively a continuation of a business bought from Rose Elworthy who launched it in the mid-1980s as the Amy Rose Collection.

Rose continued to design products under the Amy Rose brand after she sold the business, and her name is kept alive today by her daughter Lesley who is well known in Welsh craft circles and beyond.

With her husband Philip, Myra continued producing natural and undyed wool in the traditional way, later moving the business to an industrial unit at Lampeter in Mid Wales.

When the Mortlocks decided to retire in 2004, one of their customers, Gotland sheep breeder Sue Blacker, expressed an interest in acquiring the business. She approached customers past and present with a research survey to determine exactly what they wanted and put together a business plan which was approved for European Union Objective 1 funding in the spring of 2005.

The Natural Fibre Company was finally taken over from the Mortlocks on 14 November 2005 and relocated in a 10,000 sq ft factory at Launceston in Cornwall close to the Devon border.

Scouring and blending began later that month while the first organic run was in January 2006. Mohair and alpaca started going through the mill in May 2006; worsted and semi worsted spinning was added in July 2007.

In 2008 the company acquired an additional 5,000 sq ft on the same site, installed a dye plant and launched an on-line shop with products containing the wool it processes on behalf of its customers.