Kentwool Receives Uster's First US Quality Certification

Greenville-based wool spinner Kentwool has become the first company in the Western Hemisphere to receive Usterized quality certification from Uster Technologies AG, a Switzerland-based manufacturer of online and laboratory textile-quality-monitoring systems. Kentwool, a 164-year-old company that supplies superfine wool yarn to high-end apparel brands such as Italy-based Loro Piana S.p.A. and Irvine, Calif.-based St. John Knits Inc., is one of approximately 45 companies in 13 countries worldwide to have received the certification.

Uster — which maintains technology centers in Switzerland, the United States and China; and operates six service centers worldwide, including two in the United States — awarded the certification following a two-month audit process conducted at Kentwool’s 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Pickens, S.C. The audit covered manufacturing and operational categories including Kentwool’s quality management system, which demonstrated consistent, sustainable capability to test yarn quality.

“Achieving this unique quality certification from the most respected textile quality firm on the planet, coupled with our ability to produce the finest wool yarn in North America, confirms we are on track to achieve our vision of becoming the premier wool innovation and manufacturing company in the world,” said Mark Kent, president and CEO, Kentwool.

January 8, 2008