Blanket business booming in Belle Vallee: drawing upon 150 years of sheep farming heritage.

With his family now a century and a half in the sheep farming business, it is perhaps only natural that David Wight finds himself at the head of Belle Vallee Wools, a successful wool milling firm.

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A former southern Ontario resident, Wight's family moved to the diminutive town of Belle Vallee, just north of New Liskeard, in 1984. What began as a self-taught winter sideline to Wight's family, sheep farm has since taken on a life of its own.

Business now runs year-round, producing 1,000 tartan blankets on an annual basis.

A 90-year-old, 60-foot-long carding machine is at the heart of the wool mill. Unlike modern equipment, it doesn't require chemicals to treat the wool, meaning the end product is not only a pure wool but is also allergenfree.

Belle Vallee is the only facility of its kind in Ontario, breeding the sheep that produce the wool used in the manufacture of the company's signature blankets. What's more, it's one of the only sites in North America that can reproduce a sample of a tartan into a full blanket.

So unique is this place that up to 5,000 tourists travel there every summer, sometimes arriving by the busload. Wight adds with a laugh that this can prevent much from getting done through August, with visitors slowing the work of his five employees.

Though Toronto and southwestern Ontario are the company's main markets, the new push for buying "made in Canada" products is creating a larger awareness of Belle Vallee Wools.

In recent years, his business has shifted into the realm of big-business clientel, with corporate tartans becoming a growing trend. This has helped bring his products all over the world, from Manitoba to the United States, from Africa to Britain to Japan.

www.bvwools.com

By NICK STEWART Northern Ontario Business