British Wool partners with My Country Business Awards 2015 to find emerging wool talent

An inspiring competition run by one of the UK’s leading home interiors publications has joined forces with British Wool, to empower and promote entrepreneurs to move their fledgling country businesses forward.

The ‘My Country Business Awards’ now in its sixth year, will run in the April issue (on sale now) of Country Homes & Interiors (CH&I) - a monthly publication distributed nationwide to a readership that favours UK made products and modern rural lifestyles. The magazine celebrates female entrepreneurs that ‘do what they love and love what they do’ and has a track record of helping young businesses build identity and gain new custom.

British Wool will be the major sponsor of the competition which has six categories of entry; Interiors, Retail Services, Hospitality and Leisure, Craft, Food and a new Award for Emerging Talent using British Wool. Other partners include Heals. Alistair Sawdays, Etsy, Yeo Valley Farms and Susie Watson Designs.

The six winners will receive three mentoring sessions each from experts in the sector and valuable coverage within the magazine which has a readership of over 320K and a huge following online and in social media.

British Wool, which is owned and run by up approximately 50,000 sheep farmers in the UK symbolises the importance of country based businesses, that are mostly run from the farmhouse with multi-generations involved.


The UK has more sheep breeds than any other country in the world and has the greatest natural diversity in both shade and texture in wool available to the textile sector. This aspect of British Wool is increasingly interesting to young designers looking for a unique story that will enhance their product.

“We felt the ethos of this competition complemented the origin and story of British Wool perfectly, Many of our farmers are evolving their own businesses and developing additional strands to their traditional farming activity. In many cases this has become a necessity because farming is a tough industry but they also have a unique knowledge of rural life that is increasingly a strong trend and of course they are skilled business people too, so it makes sense to be multi faceted.”

“The British Wool award for Emerging Talent aims to encourage those people that have chosen wool from British sheep breeds in the UK to make their products and are carving a niche within textiles based on the origin of the fibre.” said Bridgette Kelly of The Campaign for Wool and the business mentor for the British Wool category.

“We see amazing enthusiasm from designers and students for British Wool, genuinely talented people creating amazing textiles and so we look forward to seeing the entries to this exciting Award.”