Now all part of the Fox & Lillie team – from left, Gen Butler, Daniel Charters and Alister Carr.

WOOL exporter and broker Fox & Lillie Rural has acquired KareeWool brokerage services business in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

The Fox & Lillie Group said it has enjoyed a longstanding trade relationship with KareeWool via the southern wool markets making the acquisition a logical step for both entities.

The acquisition maintains the ongoing employment of Alister Carr and Gen Butler in their customer service roles based out of Goornong and Newstead respectively.

The group’s buying and brokerage arm, Fox & Lillie Rural, said it will continue to deliver a “business as usual” attitude to KareeWool’s existing customer base with the additional benefits of dealing with one of Australia’s largest integrated wool broking, buying, exporting, and early-stage processing companies.

Fox & Lillie Rural’s general manager Daniel Charters, said the company is extremely excited that Alister and Gen have come on board.

“Both businesses complement each other very well.

“We believe the acquisition will be beneficial for KareeWool’s existing customer base, and we look forward to working with them,” he said.

The Fox & Lillie group is an Australian, family-owned business that celebrated its 75th company anniversary last year.

Under the new owners of Fox & Lillie Rural, the Goornong-based wool store will broaden its focus, offering wool growers store door buying and the company’s full services of fixed-price wool brokerage, quick turnaround from the shed to auction, services with prompt payment, and on-farm pickup and logistics support.

The integration of the KareeWool business into Fox & Lillie Group will mean that wool growers are able to connect directly with international wool users, with the group having a strong history in wool processing and ass a shareholder in a specialised open tops processing factory in China.

Alister Carr said that the acquisition was timely for their existing client base, under the Fox & Lillie Rural banner, with the added benefits of more marketing opportunities for their wool including normal cost competitive wool brokerage services.

“Also critical was remaining in a private and family owned and operated entity, aligned with KareeWool’s client culture, with a long term and well considered vision.”