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Two items below but multiple subjects
A funny thing happened in Waalwijk today
In Waalwijk today Stahl opened their new laboratory and a happy crowd drank copious amounts of beer and wine. Nothing new there. With openings in India and China and constant development in the Netherlands we have seen it all before. Yet this does not begin to tell the story.
I had happened to let slip that my first ever visit to Stahl in Waalwijk was when I won a British Kid Tanners Scholarship to travel to European tanneries and leather schools in 1966; so just as I was delighting in my first glass of rather nice white wine I was asked to make a speech.
Trying to find something to say when handed the microphone did not prove so hard since the role Stahl has played in helping the leather industry in these last few decades has been outstanding. More to the point with it comes a very long list of individuals I am proud to call my friends. While transactions pay the bills it is relationships that make the profits and it is the staff that builds relationships. Somehow or other all round the world Stahl have maintained a long list of really exceptional people. One of the other things about Stahl is that they have always tried to make products which add extra value, and in particular in the automobile industry have done so by looking further down the chain towards the consumer to understand what this added value should comprise. This is fundamental to ingredient branding and to getting leather established in its rightful place as a superior, renewable material.
But for the leather industry it has not been an easy 45 years. None of the three European schools I visited – Waalwijk, Darmstadt and Reutlingen – exist today and so it was poignant being there on behalf of the University of Northampton wearing the Corium Club pin in my lapel. And nearly all of the great tanneries we visited like KVL are also shut. The British Kid Tanners Association has long since disappeared. Even in the last ten years when Stahl changed hands we worried that the short term approach of venture capitalism was going to damage it permanently. Luckily we have clear evidence that the current owners have vision and are not there for the short term; I am sure that the industry will reward them for that.
Industry Sales value in The Netherlands is perhaps as high as it ever was
Looking at Northern Europe the industry has really been decimated over the last few decades. It is easy to become miserable – and yet if one examines the whole picture from raw to retail the story is not so gloomy. In Holland we have still quite a large number of medium size plants and machinery/chemical companies, but the two leading companies of Stahl and ECCO Leather stand out. Just the growth of these two dynamic companies alone means that the leather industry turnover in the Netherlands is perhaps as high as it ever was.
Also notable in Waalwijk is how important this little town is for moving the world’s shoes around. Holland is really a country that causes confusion with footwear statistics as matching up imports and exports when so little is made is always problematic. Waalwijk traders have picked up the license rights to many old and current brands and constitute a group with considerable critical mass. Do not forget, either, that both Nike and ECCO shoes have big European HQs in the Netherlands.
Even the UK retains an interesting industry although with a structure that traditional tanners would not recognise. There are few tanners but three sit at the pinnacle of worldwide industry in glove, suede and upholstery leathers. In Northampton we have a concentration of welted footwear makers who are regaining their place not just in the standard lines but in new and exciting styles. The UK has returned to being a major producer of automobiles and while it does not have the force of the big German brands it does have a very significant leather using segment of the world’s auto-leather market. Think of Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Aston Martin and Rolls Royce. Even the redoubtable little Mini sells more than 50% of its cars in leather. And of course the UK is now quite a growth place for those luxury brands with a story to tell that somehow blends the best of history and craftsmanship with leading edge fashion.
And we must not forget that there is the University of Northampton. Getting the formula for survival right for leather is not easy but a determined move in the last decade has seen the tannery updated, the courses updated and modularised, far more relevant courses to fit with industry needs, and the research laboratories revamped. Talking of blended learning is not some alien thing but a given, understood as a key part of future interaction with industry stakeholders.
Waalwijk
20th September, 2012
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18th Unido Leather Panel Meets in Shanghai
Rachel Garwood and I both attended the UNIDO leather panel that was held just prior to the Shanghai ACLE Fair. I was wearing two hats as I also spoke on behalf of LeatherNaturally!
The leather panel brings together quite an eclectic mix as it has representatives of trade bodies across the world and throughout the supply chain from raw to finished product. It also mixes UNIDO experts with academics and research bodies so that the discussions can range far beyond the topics that fill regular leather seminars.
Probably the most important item on the agenda, and certainly the one with the most related talks, was education and this was why they asked our Leather Institute Director to join the panel. In the west leather in Northampton is the only institution with a really positive story to tell as with Reutlingen closed there is little else left and not there are even said to be doubts about Igualada (which we hope are not justified).
UNIDO showed in a couple of presentations how they have started to use advanced powerpoints to help with education on the workforce up to government officials. It is a different level to the sort of teaching we are used to in Northampton with hands on time in the tannery and a lot of face to face time. Yet new technology is changing things and allowing the use of tools to permit some level of individual learning in the students own time.
The value of the UNIDO work is that they are at the coalface in the developing world and understand the needs of all levels in the business, as well as the priorities. The exciting aspect for Northampton as that we have the content and with the new techniques of lecture capture and the effective use of short courses have it in formats that are close to fitting in with the requirements that UNIDO have uncovered. We are clearly a while away from being able to make everything fit together especially working out how to cover costs at a time when so much we do in the third world is requested free of charge. But perhaps with sponsorship or with seed funding from NGOs the route forward will be found to help the leather industry get onto its feet around the world.
All countries in the world have a right to development and using domestic raw material in the leather industry looks like a first rate way to provide jobs, improvement and a reduction in corruption.
Owen Paterson, Alumnus
While we were in Shanghai a certain Mr Cameron made an old boy from Northampton and an old colleague (well not so old, really) Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Owen Paterson studied leather after reading History at Corpus Christi and was sales director of the British Leather Company by 1983 becoming Managing Director in 1993. He was President of COTANCE from 1996-8. He is also a liveryman of the Leathersellers Company.
It is good to know that a man with frontline industrial experience can get to such a high post. His period in the leather industry was a very tough time with customers fleeing to cheaper locations in Asia while social and environmental costs were catching and sometimes overwhelming an industry fighting to relearn its business to fit the modern world.
What is left of the UK leather trade may be small, but in every sense it is in fine form. Our surviving tanneries are amongst the world leaders, institutions like the BLC have completely reinvented themselves and lead the world, and we have some fine young consultancy and support businesses. Leather is no longer an old and declining business in the UK. Equally the University of Northampton has been busy with renewal, on the leather side with great help from the Leathersellers Company. At a time when Owen’s Coalition Government has upturned University Funding the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies has the kind of industry links, and new CPD industry oriented courses and research potential that he and his colleagues were hoping to unearth.
And one great concept coming from the ICLT is that leather and waste management should work more closely together; along with fashion, design and podiatry. Northampton has a great Waste Management School with huge knowledge of landfill issues and a major involvement in the early work on pyrolytic burning of tannery wastes, now adopted in full in the hugely successful Scottish Leather Thermal Energy plant.
Owen can be rightly proud of his old college, not just in what it is doing in leather but also in his new area of the Environment.
Mike Redwood
10th September, 2012