‘Honest’ Bill Hickey started ‘W.S Hickey Ltd’ back in 1956 and ran the business out of an old garage in Ophir. The business moved to its current site 41 Leask St, Omakau in 1966.  His son, ‘Nearly Honest’ Brent, took over the business in 1981 at which time it became W.S Hickey & Son Ltd.  

Continued expansion of the current woolstore occurred in six stages through the late 1990’s to current day. In 2013 Brent’s son, Hayden, moved back to be involved in the business.  W.S Hickey & Son Ltd current employs four full time, three part time staff and at least two casual staff during the busy pre-lamb shearing season (June - Nov).

W.S Hickey & Son Ltd has responded to its growing business by investing in new technology and machinery which allows the company to handle more wool and remain competitive.

Two forklifts with a cats claws systems and one clamp forklift make the handling of large volumes of wool much more efficient. A core sampling machine was imported from South Africa in 2004 which grabs, cores and weighs individual bales, allowing the business to process up to 60 bales per hour.

W.S Hickey & Son Ltd’s dag crushing plant was closed in 1994 to allow the company to better focus on wool handling.  The company also no longer buys sheep skins.

In moving with the times, W.S Hickey & Son Ltd now sell most of their cross bred wool through Wool Online who have set up an online trading system. Merino Wool is sold by both online tender or live auction.