Mike Redwood

Particularly Engaging Students

Mike Redwood — Wed, 08 May 2013 08:36:18 +0000

Master of Lethersellers with some of the award winning students

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 not know where to find it”. The problem in much of the world seems to be that we are danger in losing a generation where the recession in the West is making it easier for companies to hold onto older workers than hiring young ones.

So when James Lang from the Scottish Leather Group can tell this year’s graduating students (they are still waiting for results at this time) that the employment rate for leather students over the last two years has been 100% you really wonder why the ranks of leather students in Northampton are not even fuller. Indeed it takes quite a special student in leather not to get a job.

Students at Leathersellers awards ceremony in Sunley Conference Centre last week

Now that the leather industry and the University have really got to grips with the fact that leather just does not mean simply tanneries but takes into account everything from the farm to Facebook, the leather industry is a very exciting place with many skills and talents being exploited to support one great task – tanning fine leathers. The leather industry is now a real complex network with leather making at its heart and offers opportunities throughout the world in all types of organisations. James Lang talked about the work the industry does for the car business from Britain to Beijing, in airlines from BA to Qantas, in luxury goods from Burberry to LVMH, and in furnishing buildings from the Etihad Stadium to Parliaments around the world. All this before thinking about the 50% plus of all leather that goes into footwear, with Northampton itself being the world centre of excellence in premium men’s Goodyear Welted Footwear.

The temporary move out of London, while the new Leathersellers Hall is being built, has had a number of consequences which have not all been bad. We lose the grandeur and the chance to give students a full understanding of the historic importance of guilds, but we gain by a larger student attendance and a more flexible format. In the relaxed atmosphere of the Sunley Conference Centre more parents turned up than normal and we had the chance to add a visiting lecture by Japanese Professor Yuko Nishimura.

In the UK tanners have generally been highly thought of

An alum tanned ceremonial soccer ball from Japan

Professor Nishimura is an anthropologist who has been studying the role of tanners in society over the centuries. She is fascinated by the fact that in the UK tanners have generally been highly thought of – she thinks this is related to the way in which our guilds evolved – compared to India and Japan where tanners are very low caste. In her lecture she dwelt on the Japanese History where tanners while being low caste still held great power in a huge variety of ways, from magic and mystery to dance and theatre. If a young lady discovered she had married a tanner by mistake, as one does, you could get a divorce at once. Tanners were also the Ninjas of anc

ient Japan. How cool. The centre of Japanese Tanning is a town called Himeji and we were shown a film showing the traditional tanning process where the hides were being washed in the river. As the bacteria worked away at the hair roots the skins were quietly being alum tanned; as the river was high in aluminium coming from deposits upstream. A subsequent stamping with rape seed oil, which gives an aldehydic tanning effect, and a low cost, soft white leather is produced. It appears that a shrinkage temperature of about 65 degrees centigrade is achieved. The leather was used over 1000 years ago for making ceremonial soccer balls, and some more recently made were on show, and given to the ICLT.

We know that alum tanning goes back at least to the ancient Greeks, but was this the accidental way that the tanning effect of alum was first discovered?

Mike Redwood
7^th May 2013

Leather is a synonym for paradox

Mike Redwood — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:18:15 +0000

Richard Daniel (left) from World and Paul Evans at Freiberg Leather Days Conference

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 now with APLF and Lineapelle backing up around Easter we have an intensive period of activity in the spring as opposed to a long drawn out first quarter of travel. What is also a sign of the times is that the UK has two tanners represented at the spring Hamburg aviation show – both announcing the fact with photos on social media. Not long ago I only knew of this show via an engineering company in the USA whose Board I have been on since 1990, and has no connection with leather.

So times are changing. Indeed as a write this at the FILK 2nd Freiberg Leather Days Jo Gilet has just reminded us that “the only constant is change”. His talk, amidst other more technical papers, was very entertaining making the quip in answer to a question related to meat consumption that ” leather is a synonym for paradox” highlighted the big switch over fifteen years from a high proportion of bulls to a majority of cows, along with the fact that too many companies, especially in the automobile trade, are trying to establish defect acceptance sheets that do not recognise the fact that natural materials should not be defined in this way. “The hide will not adapt itself to the leather market”.

I was delighted to be given the opening slot to discuss the leather market place – issues of raw material and the final consumers – and LeatherNaturally! – and to find myself talking to an audience of over 150, many from the auto industry. The leather and leather using industry is much more cohesive than ours in the UK. If we could get away from our somewhat cynical and self-deprecating approach to the world then Mulberry, Mulberry, Next, M&S, Mini, Aston Martin, along with abattoirs, gelatine and so many others would see themselves as part of the leather industry along with the tanners. The whole structure could me much more creative and dynamic. And remember we have the world’s two strongest leather trade magazines, and some great fashion and design ones in the UK to publicise it all. Time for a re-think?

Mike Redwood
25th April 2013

A career in leather

Mike Redwood — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:58:15 +0000

Peter Laight & Rachel Garwood at Careers Day

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 Creative Leather Technology with an updated tannery and much better links to fashion, waste, management and podiatry seems to have changed all that. All parts of the supply chain are turning up looking for leather skills. Cow to consumer now makes real sense for the University of Northampton. And it means a determined effort to attract students into Northampton who do not have some previous connection to leather. These are exciting times.

So the ICLT held its first ever Careers Day and had a bundle of old friends and alumni along talking to a packed house about the fun of working in leather and the opportunities that exist. Companies like Clarks, ECCO, Scottish Leather Group, Stahl, TFL, LANXESS, UKLF and the Identity Store all had stands as well as spent time talking to students. As did designers like Anne Selby who does wonderful things with leather. Some brands also turned up to quietly pass through the crowds and talk about career opportunities.

Our old tannery dogs are coming at an end

What is absolutely clear is that there are many opportunities for good leather scientists and it is a huge shame to see unemployed graduates on the one hand and a Leather School at Northampton that could train them and put nearly all onto really good career paths. We all know that demographics means that many positions will be created in the next five years as boomers retire and we are short of Gen Y people to fill them. Yet it looks that the leather trade demographic shift will be later greater than many industries as with the tannery exit from the west starting in the 1970s we have managed much of our industry by keeping more of the old “tannery dogs” going with the help of very few young managers coming through. Mike Tomkins from Stahl indicated that their annual need was going to be a minimum of fifteen a year.

Leather worldwide is on a rebound these days. The University is planning really exciting new course introductions over the next few years that gets leather out of its historic silo and into the main stream value chain. Much closer cooperation with the School of Management and The School of the Arts will bring leather teaching to many more students and creative ideas of all sorts into leather.

But some old Tannery Dogs intend to stick around

The day was an outstanding success and everyone speaking and exhibiting said they would support it again next year. Yet not all the old “tannery dogs” are walking away yet. Dr. Peter Laight made it clear he still had another twenty years of charm and innovation to offer the leather trade!

Evolution at Coach

Mike Redwood — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:39:47 +0000

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 tannery.

Pittards’ agent in New York at the time was owned by Pearce of Northampton, some of whose specialist materials Coach used in small volumes, and it was they who took me in. Selling volume side leather for mainstream Coach bags against the top US tanners such as Prime and Salz was a battle of a different dimension. Yet even 30 years ago Coach understood the importance of secure supplies of raw material to underpin their growth. Although I was not to find out until later Coach had undertaken a study to look for global tanners who would be able to help them as they grew internationally beyond the supply capabilities of their existing large US tanners.

More than any company I remember Coach taught me the value of identifying and maintaining the core qualities that make a brand successful with the consumer, and understanding the perceived values that the consumer applies to products that satisfy not just utilitarian needs but also emotional and psychological ones.

A man called Fred Freisenham

Early in my time in dealing with Coach our first 80,000 square feet delivery from Leeds got sent back and I had to drive up to Leeds to look at it filling space in the corridor and deal with a furious technical director who considered the leather perfectly suited for purpose. It was hard to see where it failed to meet the specification but the real issue was that Lew Frankfort had a gatekeeper, a man called Fred Freisenham who bought all his leather. Fred was a retired leather goods manufacturer who had been persuaded out of retirement to oversee the quality of the Coach of brand. His distinctive style was to become legendary. While I could not initially fathom his decision to return our first shipment I could see what he was about. The classic Coach leather and the bags were not so hard to copy and it was only when every detail about the leather, the components and the manufacture was perfectly controlled and united could you be sure that it was truly Coach. I soon was to learn that Fred had a subtle accurate touch and understanding of materials that had to be respected, which seemed quite at variance with his quite aggressive treatment of young British sales staff. Yet the Coach brief case I bought in New York in 1987 is still my main bag in use today, without having needed any repair or maintenance, and I know I owe that to Fred.

This dedication to quality always leads to loyalty from customers and Lew Frankfort is a man who believes in doing the research to understand the Coach customer. Very often he enjoyed talking us through his latest research findings. One I remember well was that the average US household that owned a Coach item would actually have at least six products in the house. I found myself asking all my US contacts as I travelled North America and generally found he was right. My wife has always liked Coach – only the full leather bags – so the six figure soon became a major underestimate for our household.

Change and change again

The early nineties saw some delicate manoeuvring and major changes. With Sara Lee Coach slipped into and out of different divisions and Lew Frankfort got elevated and suddenly found himself managing other categories, such as gloves. From the outside it did not look like a comfortable time.

And in opposition to all the market research I had been shown previously a decision was forced on Coach to go overseas with its manufacture; following a trend rushing through all American industry. So within a few years Coach ended up being floated as an individual entity and turned into an organisation more like Nike, with design and marketing in New York, but manufacturing off on an endless globetrotting exercise. Yet despite all this turmoil the brand never seemed to take a miss-step. The quality did not suffer and the consumer loyalty only grew.

There was a fleeting experiment in Europe, soon abandoned when the delights of the Asia offered hotter prospects first in Japan and then in China. Europe has just come back on the table in the last three years as a global brand has to be, well, global.

The Financial Times profiled Lew Frankfort a few years ago and it noted that he liked his new Aston Martin. After bringing Coach from $6m in 1979 to around $5 billion today and making shareholders, many employees and millions of customers very happy he can take a step back with real pride.

Major role for Northampton Alumni

And with one of our alumni, Mike Todd, now looking after all the Coach leather along with other good friends such as John Paintain, Soren Christiansen, and of course Doug Fleckenstein (who can still remember some of those far off days) one still feels Coach has the impetus to grow. Indeed in the now hugely expanded Coach organisation Northampton alumni now have a major role. Alumni working with Mike include David Wright, Steve Perry , Tom Walker, John Paintain.

But it will not be so easy. As raw material gets scarcer in terms of the growing human population more and more the best hides and skins are moving to the top end of luxury and the bottom of the market is being attacked by plastic. Sitting in their special niche of affordable luxury Coach will have to make leathers which are exceptionally clever, and design with wisdom, to maintain their quality and their longstanding customer loyalty. As we know in the leather industry nothing is simple, but quality always wins.

Mike Redwood

19^th February 2013

Managing “Brand Leather”

Mike Redwood — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:00:20 +0000

Solid and liquid wastes are a problem in Pakistan

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 been produced to show how society and the planet is being damaged by lack of environmental treatment of wastes and poor or dangerous working conditions. There is no doubt that mainstream high quality leather production is being damaged by the wide publicity being given to these aspects of leather production which run totally against the image of leather as a high quality, sustainable, planet friendly material. Recent pictures in a double page spread in the Guardian Newspaper of Hazaribagh are typical.

The problem is that it is very easy when defending leather to attack these groups in a way that offers no solution. Anthony Wright commented as follows: “Maybe ‘the industry’ should get down from its ill-informed high horse and see what’s really going on these tanneries and understand the issues faced by decent, honest tanners trying to survive making real leather. Hazaribagh is a great example of a tanning microcosm trying to exist in a dysfunctional political environment. Kano in Nigeria is another one. The question ‘can low tech tanners in poor countries really produce a quality product’ reveals a complete lack of understanding of both tanning and the industry in general. Oh, and by the way, the answer is yes they certainly can, and in a much more environmentally friendly way.”

Ian Michel jumped in quickly in support: “I agree very much with Anthony. I will add that having visited Hazaribagh on a few occasions, I have never seen any young children working in the tanneries and I do not think they use any more toxic chemicals than the rest of the world in both leather and other industries. I have, however seen many 4 and 5 year olds running in between the chaotic traffic begging for money or a crust. There are no state benefits in Bangladesh and the fortunate ones who have a job do not really need the rest of the world trying to take it away from them. Starvation is a big problem.

The tanners do produce good leather and they should be allowed to continue. Things may be better when and if they ever move the tanneries to their new area where they will have better effluent treatment, but in the meantime we should support them.”

There are some important points here. I’ve never been to Bangladesh but have travelled to many of the places that get regularly mentioned. While the processing is generally speaking using the same chemicals as the rest of our industry the primary issues are the management of waste and the health and safety of the workers. It is the former where I struggle with what Ian and Anthony are saying with regard to these issues.

Take Pakistan as an example. They have been talking about a central effluent plant for tanneries for decades. Many of the tanners and glove/garment makers are very wealthy. The local community is rich enough to have shocked the country and built its own airport, with the longest runway in the country. Yet with only 1% of Pakistanis bothering to pay tax the money that should be paying for effluent treatment is parked in banks in Dubai and Zurich. There is a chrome treatment plant, but it was disconnected when I was last there. Tannery effluent is being released into the paddy fields and children are getting sick. The leather from good tanneries in Pakistan with full treatment, such as those in Karachi, is tainted by what goes on in Sialkot.

Think also of Ethiopia, where the leather industry is a lamplighter for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Back in 1964 a tannery was built in the town of Modjo, some 75 miles south of Addis and I have visited it many times since the mid 80s. Until recently no one bothered with effluent treatment and the waste went directly to the river. At the same time as new tanneries were built generally no effluent plants were established. In the general region only Pittards Ethiopian Share Tannery was really well set up with a comprehensive waste system. Things are perhaps improving now but when I was last there two years ago the Modjo plant was a long way off and the tanneries in the town were putting raw waste into the river. Across the country in Morocco you will find well established tanneries still waiting for relocation to a future area with a central treatment. Meanwhile quite a few remain with zero treatment. And in the souks like Fez why are some of these little tanners using chrome. They have zero competence and structure to manage chromium and should stay well clear.

In China we saw large tanneries with excellent waste treatment plants but not using them in order to save the running costs. Progress really started to made in China around 2005 when China decided to enforce and improve their regulations. This cheating has been eliminated, tanneries have been grouped into new centres with central treatment plants while smaller standalone plants have been shut. Problems in India are all about enforcement with Tamil Nadu being really strict while some other parts of India appear to lack the political will to enforce the rules, or are just corrupt.

The question is how we address these problem? It is not easy. But where we are playing with rich owners or management deliberately avoiding their responsibilities then I do not have any sympathy; anywhere in the world. When you are working with small impoverished producers we do need to find away to help them. Effluent plants do not need to be outlandishly expensive and given a fair amount of land simple approaches like reed beds offer low cost solutions. Why on earth do authorities permit new downtown tanneries, as in Addis, where they just is not enough space to do affordable effluent treatment?

As I have worked around the world with USAid, UNIDO and other organisations over the years I have tried to focus on this aspect. Nearly all the countries you work in have fast growing populations and polluted rivers and water table quickly impacts on the health of the community in a way that never happened 50 years ago. So trying to simplify, clarify and help with environmental matters has to be a central element.

Equally with workwear. We have tended to travel the world and accepted that it was OK to find workers in bare feet on machines like fleshing machines. These days we need to start insisting on proper gloves, footwear and other protective clothing; which does often mean finding ways of helping the poor manufacturers to fund these. In Ethiopia Pittards have long made it known that they will help other tanners with imports of affordable product which just shows that there are ways to do it.

A final thought

One aspect of all this is to be clear that we are not just setting up barriers to trade for certain tanners and countries. Demands for expensive test certificates that require large numbers of samples to be sent to Europe, or paying fees for membership and audit in the LWG are typical developments intended to make more of the world’s leather comply with top standards but have the side-effect of excluding financially weak developing world tanners. I agree, too, that folks like me from LeatherNaturally! attacking them as part of a process of protecting the “brand leather” is unhelpful. Yet these are issues that we have to help resolve, not just for the sake of tanners involved, nor for the sake of image and future of leather as a material but also for the planet.

Mike Redwood

14th December, 2012

An Alumni Event

Mike Redwood — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:20:20 +0000

Mike Redwood addressing the conference on Corporate Social Responsibilityaddressing the conference on Corporate Social Responsibility

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 testify to their value in keeping me in touch with colleagues who were to be invaluable a couple of decades after we would otherwise have lost contact. Of course today we have LinkedIn doing the job, or at least something similar, and the University has its alumni association.

In Northampton the Corium group is one of the strongest alumni associations although with regular changes in the database structure we do appear to keep losing addresses, and the UK laws on how we can use and share data about people make it quite hard to get it updated. Given that leather does not involved huge numbers and is still a small industry my ambition would be to actually identify every single individual who studied in London and Northampton since 1908 and get a short biography written with a class photo or two involved. Since I studied at Leeds I would be quite keen for those students to be involved also, but I think that is a stage two.

Such a document would be a fine part of the world’s leather industry history in the era of chrome tanning. It was chrome tanning that drove the demand for trained leather chemists and hence it was the late 19^th century and early 20^th when the main worldwide colleges were founded. Wherever you travel today in the world you come across owners, managers and technicians who studied with us in the UK and it would be really good to build a proper record.

Time for Taipei

Richard Pai, CEO of Joinland

And so it was that we were in Taipei earlier this week at the 9^th AICSLT Conference. AICSLT stands for Asian International Conference on Leather Science and Technology, and takes place every two years. This was the first time ever it has been to Taiwan and it was clear that the local tanners association (TILA) and the country were proud and delighted. This fabulous event was organised by George Huang who did a one year course in Northampton early in his career sponsored by the Taiwanese government and the Chairman of the organising committee was Richard Pai, another Northampton Graduate, who is the CEO of the famous tanning group Joinland/Tai Che. Nearly three hundred delegates attended this two and a half day technical conference and with Wolfram Scholz giving one lecture, Barry Wood from the BLC giving two and myself giving the AICSLT lecture on behalf of the University the UK was well represented.

It is important that the UK was present as in this important regional forum the representation from India and a number of Chinese Universities was considerable. They were present with senior staff and a cohort of students giving short papers on their research work. We view ourselves as leaders in research so these events are important occasions to keep our profile high amongst the world’s top tanners and chemical companies.

Avoid pushing the self destruct button

There was a heavy weighting of talks towards environmental matters – new tannages, carbon footprints, “natural dyes”, composting and all sorts of ways of handling tannery wastes and by-products. Very noticeable was the number of young researchers willing to put a simple statement in their slides that said “chrome is toxic”. So much so that past IULTCS President Prof Bi Shi from Sichuan University interrupted one Indian presenter to say that she should not make that sort of statement which just was not true. To be fair many of the Chinese presenters said something very similar. And Campbell Page became equally frustrated by papers explaining that current dyestuff technology involved banned substances, which he said no one had actually been using for over fifteen years. These are important areas as however hard we work on new tannages chromium will remain the major tanning process for a decade or more yet, and we all know that when done properly it is a good safe process. The last thing the leather industry can afford is our own academics and research students glibly telling the world that what we currently do is “toxic” or totally wrong in some other way. The leather industry has enough enemies to fight without trying to kill ourselves.

Mike Redwood
16^th November, 2012

Good relations

Mike Redwood — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:05:07 +0000

Reg Hankey, CEO of Pittards, talks to the Textile Industry Hide to High Street Conference

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 listening to Reg Hankey and Rachel Garwood explain how a modern tanning group works and the basics of leather were very welcome return to updating the fundamentals that so easily get forgotten in the rush of progress. We had a thorough explanation of how new legislation on testing and management of banned substances from the point of view of the textile industry, which largely parallels leather and brought a wider perspective to the subject than tanners usually get to hear. A talk from the psychology department on the aspects of consumer purchasing added to the role of colour and fashion and the transfer of technology from Stahl moved the day closer to the consumer, a proximity strengthened by Guy West’s desire to make an Albion all UK shoe – a hope that may now come to fruition with the help of Reg Hankey of Pittards. I had the closing role of discussing ingredient branding and LeatherNaturally!

A few pointers came from this excellent meeting. Given that we have no end uses in which leather cannot be replaced by technical textiles or plastics and that leather is going to be in ever shorter supply in global per capita terms working more closely with the textile industry clearly makes sense and Rachel Garwood is to be congratulated for building links so that this event could take place. Second it is clear that Sunley, with both a good room set up and affordable overnight accommodation, is a first rate conference venue. Being able to do tours of the tannery also offers a quite unique experience for delegates. The rolling lunch was amazingly successful and relaxed. There are quite a few photos from the event on the ICLT Facebook page.

Proposing the motion

A couple of years ago I was asked to propose a motion in a debate about sourcing from China at Prime Source Forum in Hong Kong. This is a garment and footwear sourcing conference seen really as a venue for the textile industry and the brands. It has built a great reputation over the years and attracts about 1000 attendees, many in very senior positions. A “Doha” style debate using Oxford rules has become the traditional final item on the agenda and ours was chaired by the Editor of the Far East Wall Street Journal. I had Angela Peers as my seconder; Angela is a Professor in textiles at Manchester Metropolitan University. Opposing us was Thomas Nelson who is MD for Asia of VF corporation and Andrew Schroth a senior trade lawyer. We had great fun and while we clearly won the argument we lost the debate overwhelmingly and have regularly been back to redress the balance. What was significant, however, as Dr Mark Wilkinson said at the time, was that for the first time this put the University of Northampton onto the global stage for the brands and retailers along with all those in the sider supply chain.

Good science not flash headlines.

That is how it should be. With our wide supply chain capability from fashion to materials science from raw material to podiatry and from psychology to management The University of Northampton is now well placed to be a central player in the global world of leather and all things related, including supporting some aspects of other materials. Certainly being part of all the global discussions, and up to date is vital.

In the leather industry we have great problems with NGOs and other pressure groups who cherry pick the facts to develop an anti leather narrative. The textile industry is no different. As with the leather industry Greenpeace is making itself heard. A lot of what Greenpeace says has to be listened to and we admire them for being better marketers and communicators than most companies in our industry. But as I said in my talk to the textile institute a brand is only as strong as its weakest link. The problem for Greenpeace is that its love of headlines and of embarrassing the brands runs too far ahead of the facts and when we eventually get to the truth we discover that unnecessary harm has been done. The attack on Argentine tanners appears to have been totally wrong, the second attack on hides from the Brazilian rain forests was totally inaccurate and the first ignored the impact of soya and sugar cane so they could focus on the publicity to be gained by attacking high profile brands.

It looks like their textile Detox campaign is much the same and the are enjoying trashing great Outdoor brands who put considerable store by their environmentally sound approach, going for the headlines before anyone can properly think matters through. We are a scientific industry and these matters need good science rather than flash headlines.

29th October, 2012

A funny thing happened in Waalwijk today

Mike Redwood — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:18:36 +0000

Stahl CEO Huub van Beijeren opens the new leather laboratory

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.

Streamers celebrate the Stahl laboratory opening ceremony

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
20^th September, 2012

18th Unido Leather Panel Meets in Shanghai

Mike Redwood — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:00:12 +0000

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

Owen Patterson

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
10^th September, 2012

Getting it right by degrees

Mike Redwood — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:16:28 +0000

Roy Thomson with Rachel Garwood

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 in fashion, design, waste management etc., has a number of key advantages for these difficult times:

we have good contacts with industry in the UK and overseas
leather graduates are highly employable
our links extend to the entire supply chain through brands and retail and into many exciting sectors – luxury, auto, footwear and fashion.
there are some really valuable research opportunities.

So seeing graduates coming forward who have shown outstanding skills in study such as Leela Pamidimukkala coming forward to receive their degrees is an important aspect in our fast changing world.

Apart from Leela and his other colleagues receiving degrees and diplomas we had two other graduates of note yesterday. First was Roy Thomson who received his doctorate based on his studies on the conservation of leather. Roy for many of us is remembered from his days at Strong and Fisher, and it is quite fantastic that he has been able to follow that with a long and fulfilling period as Director of the Leather Conservation Centre which although not formally part of the University is based on Campus just behind the Leathersellers Centre. As a great leather man having retired from the LCC he was motivated to continue his interest in leather by working on a well deserved PhD. Roy deserves all our congratulations.

Mauro and Yvonne Magnaguagno and their family

Our other graduate is Mauro Magnaguagno on whom was conferred an Honorary Doctorate. These days Universities appear to seek out minor celebrities for their degree ceremonies so they can catch quick headlines in the press. But this demeans the value of Honorary Degrees. On the other hand Mauro Magnaguagno is perhaps a perfect example of why and how Honorary Degrees are such a wonderful tool with which to recognise contributions to industry and society.

Mauro is the Director of the TFL Academy in Arzignano in Italy. He instigated and has maintained a relationship with us at Northampton since 2002. A trip to Arzignano with study time with Mauro associated with tannery and machinery company visits in the local leather cluster has become an established part of our teaching. In addition through all this we have started to have a steady stream of students from northern Italy coming onto Northampton full time courses. So while Mauro has through his career made a major contribution to the development of the leather industry in general he has made a huge difference to the quality and experience of leather teaching in Northampton. Rarely has an honorary degree been better deserved.

So all at Northampton we’re delighted that Mauro and his family were with us this week. We are proud of our international links, proud of our industry involvement and no one exemplifies this better than Mauro.

20th July 2012