decades

This is a crisis still to play out

Published: February 10, 2021

In a rather slow changing world, strategic thinking was a very relaxed process during the centuries of leathermaking, but in the last few decades, the subject has needed to become part of routine management team discussions. As the 20^th century progressed, the leather industry slowly began to recognise that changes were happening that required long term planning to adapt for the implications of an aging global society, rapid urbanisation and a huge emerging middle class.

Getting the industry to 2050

Published: January 8, 2020

We are now entering the third decade of the new millennium and are in sight of that far-off year of 2050. Only three decades to go. A look back at the last three decades of the leather industry is not reassuring.

New Product Development is back with a vengeance

Published: August 21, 2019

“And finally this century is nearly two decades old, and if you look around the innovation that our customers are seeing has come more from the alternatives than it has from leather.”

Passing the gauntlet

Published: June 21, 2017

It has always disappointed me to see a small company decide to close down. Certainly, there is a time to live and a time to die for a business and not all businesses are set to survive through endless decades. When I began in industry an S&P 500 company had an average life of about 60 years, while now it is down closer to 17.

A market for horses would be a good thing

Published: June 7, 2017

Just two kilometres from my home we have a sanctuary for horses. It is something you would never have envisaged existing two or three decades ago. On a much smaller scale, we did have places for retired working horses (those that went down coalmines for example) but there was never a need to save horses that were loved by the families that owned them as the continued to care for their welfare long after they were used for riding.

China’s importance to leather

Published: September 6, 2016

I was delighted to be asked by APLF to interview Mr Su Chaoying while we were at the All China Leather Exhibition (ACLE) last week. Mr Su has been part of the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA) for about 3 decades, with the last five years as Chairman and he has just moved to the more relaxed role of Honorary Chairman.

Fighting the decline

Published: May 19, 2015

Japanese tanning industry output has declined steadily over the past three decades. However, the industry still supports a number of high-end leather makers. Article first published in the January-February 2015 edition of ILM.

Well-done CLIA

Published: September 24, 2014

We have all seen China rise to become the dominant industrial force in the world, including in the leather and leather products industries over the past three decades, but 2014 may go down in history as the year that China changed.