The legacy of Camira Fabrics is so illustrious that it started long before Australia officially became a nation. The English textile business was first founded in 1822 in the UK town of Halifax when John Holdsworth started his own worsted spinning mill, creating John Holdsworth & Co, and has grown over the years to become an innovative textile leader globally in the public transport market. The Camira name came into effect in 2006 through a management buy-out, continuing the brand’s ongoing fabric legacy.
The ‘Holdsworth legacy’ of wool moquette is well respected globally in the public transport industry and lives on with the Camira brand through continual improvement to its products, specifications and environmental impacts.
The Australian brand is part of the greater and larger Camira entity, which has shown resilience and growth in the very competitive global textile market. The textile manufacturing brand is split into two main segments, being the commercial/contract and ‘transport’ sectors. With the commercial or contract side, Camira globally supplies fabrics for offices, auditoriums, hotels, homes and public areas, just to name a few. The greater majority of the approximately eight million metres of fabric produced by Camira services this commercial industry.
On the flipside is the transport sector, which represents around a quarter of Camira’s business. Despite being in a smaller silo of a much larger company, the production capabilities of Camira’s public transport space aren’t to be discounted, including historical long-term supply, particularly moquette, into globally recognised transport networks like the London Underground, London double decker buses and many core transit networks globally.
Of that public transport production, roughly 15 per cent services Camira’s Australasian operations. It’s just another case of Australia and its surrounds commanding plenty of attention despite holding a smaller population than many other global regions.
“We’re going very well in a global setting considering Australia is a large country geographically, but with a smaller population,” Camira area business manager for APAC (transport) Rodney Peterson told ABC.
“In a metre per head of population perspective, Camira performs quite well in Australia.”
Locally, Camira has offered a range of fabrics, particularly moquette, for public transport operators for decades being built on a strong respect for quality, durability and capability, with the Australasian arm of the business leveraging its global head to innovate fabric technology in the local and greater regions.
“There have been many new entrants into Australian bus and coach supply lines in recent years, particularly with the evolution of EV and non-emission vehicles,” Peterson says.
“Camira is adapting to continue to service and supply fabric within this continually evolving marketplace, be it to local manufacturers or those located offshore, as Camira provides a global supply service.
“We’ve been a partner in the industry for such a long time with intentions to remain and continue to be relevant in bus and coach market supply chains for the long term. We’ve made the conscious decision to constantly invest in stock to allow for the quick turnaround and responses on products to service the sector as is demanded.”
At the heart of Camira’s operations in Australasia is its facility in Tullamarine, right near Melbourne Airport. Until mid-2025, the Camira sales office was situated separate to the Tullamarine warehouse, but recently the company took the opportunity to relocate its office under the one roof for efficiencies in communication, stock movement and product servicing.
“It gives us more control over the total process from sales enquiry to order fulfilment and allows us to make response times quicker for our customers,” Peterson says.
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Another part of Camira’s ongoing legacy that is often overlooked in the local market is the depth of work that goes into producing high-quality fabrics. As Peterson explains, to have a fabric ready to deliver from its Tullamarine warehouse, the process of starting from scratch begins by dyeing the yarns, then heads onto the weaving process, final inspection and the application of treatments (if necessary) before the finishing. It’s only then ready for despatch from England. It takes between six and eight weeks for fabric to be manufactured before being readied for transport to Australia and then distributed to the industry.
“This highlights how Camira having stock on-hand locally doesn’t just happen – it requires deep planning, strong organisation and good industry forecasting,” he says.
“To service the Australian industry, from manufacturers for new vehicles to operators who need a few metres for repairs, we hold around more than 100 fabric patterns in Melbourne alone and constantly take into consideration each of these patterns on how much is needed per week, per month and per year so we can determine what we need to manufacture and get delivered into Tullamarine for ‘just in time’ supply to our customers.
“It can be very challenging at times, particularly with disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, logistics issues such as Evergreen blocking a major transit channel and the economic effects and disruption of the current Middle East crisis, but we manage our best endeavours to meet the industry’s expectations.
“We look forward to continuing to service enquiries and develop supply lines worldwide from our manufacturing facilities in West Yorkshire, England.”
Peterson says Camira’s Australian office isn’t just focused on Australia – the scope sees Camira supply a variety of fabric options to customers in the APAC region. From ferries in Fiji and transport networks in the Middle East to manufacturers in northern China or operators in the south of Tasmania, these geographical areas come under the responsibility of Camira’s Australia office. While it may sound like a lot (which it is for a small team of three), Peterson says the recent relocation to its distribution centre and improvements in its internal systems and communication has all helped Camira become streamlined and efficient in this global region.
“We have recently introduced cleaner, greener and future-proofed manufacturing processes such as ‘NitroPhlam365’, which is an organically based fire retardant, as well as strategically removing Forever Chemicals (PFATS) from our processing routes,” he says.
In keeping with Camira’s longevity, it’s poised to continue leading the way in the local public transport space.
“We have quite a few exciting and innovative fabrics in development that will support and diversify seat fabric options to operators,” Peterson says.
“At Camira we pride ourselves on having 200 years of textile manufacturing history and the strong and long-lasting relationships that we enjoy with Australia’s bus and coach industry.”
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