Mill workers at Summit Wool Spinners in Oamaru have had their hours extended because of an increase in orders.
Fifty workers took voluntary redundancy earlier this year and the company adopted the Government's nine-day fortnight scheme as it faced a big downturn in orders.
Summit Wool Spinners says there has been a small but promising increase in orders from Australia, which is sufficient to return to 10-hour shifts for the mill's four shifts across the working day.
However, the company says it is still too early to be thinking of a return to the previous 12-hour shift system, or re-employing those who took voluntary redundancy.
It says at some stage customers will be looking at resuming some level of orders, but how that translates into actual business remains to be seen.
