The last wool company in N.B. prepares 100th anniversary

NewBrunswick'sonly woolbusiness iscelebratingits 100thanniversary next month at amill location that is even older.

Briggs and Little Woolen Mills Ltd., located in York Mills, was founded in1916 and has survived fires, floodsand a changing industry.

Co-ownerJohn Little has worked at his family's company for nearly 50 years.

"About 150 years agothere was a wool processing facility probably every 40 or 50 kilometresbecause it was within a day's travel by horse and wagon,"saidLittle. "There's no other mills in New Brunswick, and there's none in Nova Scotia. There's one in P.E.I."

Little says he has no idea exactly why his company hasremainedin the wool business while dozens of others havedisappeared.

"If I could answer that I could probably win the lottery," laughed John Little.

Little says the company has shipped product all over the world including several Asian markets.

"We've sent ours toAustraliaas well, which you wouldn't think of because they have so many sheep and industry already," said Little. "But our product is much different."

Little says in 2010 the world saw what Briggs and Little yarn could do when every Canadianathleteand coachattendedthe Vancouver closingceremonywearing sweaters made with their product.

"We watched for two weeks, and never saw those sweaters," said Little. "We thought, 'where are they?' And then after two weeks there they were. That was special."

Briggs and Little Woolen Mills currently has about two dozen employees.Little says stayingrelativelysmall has benefited the company andallowedthem to ride out the ups and downs over the decades.

Littlesays the types of customers and their demandshave shifted a lot during the last few years and the advent of online sales haschallengedthecompany, but he thinks yarn will still be in demand for at least another hundred years.

"So far they haven't found anotherfiberthat will give a human comfort under as many diverse conditions as wool will," said Little. "It can be wet and it will still keep you warm. It can actually be frozen on the outside and still keep you warm. So it has properties that haven't been able to be duplicated."

Always changing

Little says the company is used to changes throughout its hundred-year history.

"In 1945 we introducedcolours," said Little. "Paddy Green,ScarletRedand Royal Blue. Now we have 300 to 400 choices of product."

The company is now under the ownership of afourthgeneration ofLittles.John Little's sonMichael became anownerof thecompanya year and ahalf ago.

"It's very rewarding, I'm proud of it," saidMichaelLittle, who hasbeen working with the company in some fashion since he was a teenager. "I'm scared to death, if I'm perfectly honest. And I just feel this is where I'm supposed to be and this is where I want to be."

MichaelLittle may have reason to worry in ahistoricalsense. Every generation of owner haswatched the mill burn to the ground as the result ofdevastatingfires, thelatestof which took place in 1994.

"But they always built it back," saidMichaelLittle. "But ouremployees, and our workers here, they're incredible. And we'll more than likelycarry on past my generation."

Despite dedicating much of their adult lives to handling wool and producing yarn, John andMichaelLittle say neitherof themhasever actually had toshear asheep.

"Not yet anyway," saidJohn Little.