For those readers who are keen listeners to BBC Radio then Robin Day’s World of Business is a must listen.  I download them as podcasts and listen in the car while I drive up to the University from home. The programme this week was “Job Search: Millions of young people want to work but do [...]

I seem to remember the start of the year beig very much defined by three months of travel to sports and outdoor trade fairs in the US and Europe, coming up for air with APLF in Hong  Kong.  The sports shows have reduced in number and the way tanners use trade shows has changed, and [...]

For the first time ever to my knowledge someone held a career day in leather last week. All through my career students have essentially slid into a life of leather through patronage or accident.  Peripheral people who might want to consider leather just did not exist.

But the new modern world of the Institute for [...]

I first met Lew Frankfort in the mid 1980s.  I was just getting to grips with a move from making leather into a new role with greater focus on marketing and selling it. Coach was a small company then, nearer $50m if I remember correctly, but it was still a good target for a European [...]

If you read the discussions group for LeatherNaturally! on LinkedIn you will be aware that the subject of environmental and sustainable leather production of leather in the developing world has been raised by Anthony Wright, of Barrhead Kid in Scotland, and Ian Michel of Amandian Leather in Northampton.

Many recent reports and YouTube videos have [...]

It is easy to rush on and forget your friends in this modern world.  Yet as we see China continue to rise in importance we all know how important connections – “guanxi” – are for moving forward in business.  In the west we used to maintain our connections with Christmas cards and I can personally [...]

Anyone who follows @ICLTleather on Twitter will know that last week the University of Northampton hosted a Textile Institute Conference on leather.  An attentive audience of industry personnel, with many from major brands, along with students from around the UK enjoyed what turned out to be a packed and fascinating day.  Even for industry insiders [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Yesterday the leather degrees were awarded by the University of Northampton. Despite all the changes in Higher Education in the UK as government tries to work out how to manage costs and the future of skills and employment leather appears to be retaining its importance.

Leather, and to it we must add the University skills [...]