Paris, November 20, 2025 – The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM), a global leader in ethical wool and wool grown with regenerative agriculture practices, expands its collaboration with TextileGenesis™, a Lectra company traceability solution, to deliver full traceability for 100% of ZQ certified wool and ZQRX regenerative wool. This move gives brand partners further verified farm-to-product data, enabling authenticated sourcing claims.
The expansion builds on a successful pilot with three global brands, building on ZQ’s track record of traceability and transparency, and marks a major step forward in aligning ethical and regenerative wool sourcing with digital traceability at scale.
Using TextileGenesis’s proprietary Fibercoin™ technology, the solution creates a secure, end-to-end digital chain of custody for all ZQ and ZQRX wool – from farm to finished product. With this expansion, traceability will be provided as a standard feature for all brand partners sourcing ZQ and ZQRX wool, with no additional cost. In the coming months NZM brand partners will be invited to set up access to the TextileGenesis platform.
“This marks a step-change in how regeneratively grown and ethical wool is tracked and trusted,” said Henry Tallott, General Manager Integrity Systems, NZM. “Brands working with ZQ and ZQRX wool now have access to real-time, verified supply chain data – helping them meet rising consumer and regulatory expectations.”
Why traceability matters
ZQ and ZQRX represent NZM’s commitment to the highest standards of animal welfare, environmental care, and grower wellbeing. ZQ and ZQRX wool are only supplied via direct contracts and approved supply chain partners. ZQ has always been fully traceable, offering visibility back to the supplying farm via a manual chain of custody traceability model. Now, with digital traceability embedded across 100% of ZQ and ZQRX wool supply, NZM is enabling brands to validate their sourcing practices with precision and transparency.
“Traceability underpins every claim our customers make about their sourcing,” said Tallott. “By embedding TextileGenesis’ technology across all ZQ and ZQRX fiber, we’re not just meeting expectations – we’re raising the bar. This ensures growers are visible and valued, while brands get the data they need to support credible product claims.”
Future-ready traceability, built into the supply chain
This expansion responds to growing industry and regulatory expectations around material traceability, including upcoming frameworks like the EU Digital Product Passport and global greenwashing laws. By making traceability the default, NZM and TextileGenesis are setting a new benchmark – where traceable sourcing is the baseline, not the exception.
“New Zealand Merino is leading the way in aligning regenerative sourcing with digital traceability at scale,” said Amit Gautam, Founder & CEO of TextileGenesis™. “Together, we’re building a more resilient, transparent wool supply chain – one that empowers growers and gives brands the verified data they need.”
About The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM)
The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) is the world’s largest single supplier of certified ethical wool. Since 1996, NZM has led the charge in transforming the wool industry through innovation, sustainability, and direct partnerships between growers and global brands.
NZM works with over 600 growers across three Southern Hemisphere sourcing regions, offering two premier ethical wool programmes: ZQ, which sets the benchmark for animal welfare, environmental care, and social responsibility; and ZQRX, a regenerative platform that supports continuous improvement.
Both programmes are available exclusively through forward contracts and span all wool types – fine, mid-micron, and strong – connecting purpose-driven growers with over 100 leading brands worldwide.
About TextileGenesis:
Founded in 2018, TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enables fashion brands and sustainable textile manufacturers to ensure a reliable, secure and fully digital traceability of their textiles, from the fiber to the consumer, and thereby guarantee their authenticity and origins. The platform provides traceability for textiles, leather and footwear, employing fiber forwards traceability for sustainable and certified materials and Supply Chain discovery approach to traceability for conventional materials.
Its innovative traceability mechanism, which addresses both ends of the textile value chain, as well as its network of partners for material certification, and its technology platform guarantee the exchange and tracking of reliable and secure data throughout a material’s life cycle. TextileGenesis platform also identifies and flags supply chain compliance/legal risks across the value chain from tier 1-4 for brands.
About Lectra:
At the forefront of innovation since its founding in 1973, Lectra provides industrial intelligence technology solutions—combining software in SaaS mode, cutting equipment, data, and associated services—to players in the fashion, automotive and furniture industries. With boldness and passion, Lectra accelerates the transformation and success of its customers in a world in perpetual motion thanks to the key technologies of Industry 4.0: AI, big data, cloud and the Internet of Things.
The Group is present in more than one hundred countries. It operates three production sites for its cutting equipment, located in France, China and the United States. Lectra’s 3,000 employees are driven by three core values: being open-minded thinkers, trusted partners and passionate innovators. They all share the same commitment to social responsibility, which is one of the pillars of Lectra’s strategy for ensuring sustainable growth for both the company and its customers.
The company is listed on Euronext, and is included in CAC All Shares, CAC Technology, EN Tech Leaders and ENT PEA-PME 150 indices. For more information, please visit lectra.com.
