False Company, but that the landscape had changed a great deal since then. He explained: “ Fifty years ago, Northampton was a thriving manufacturing centre. We couldn’t say that still held true today, but I can tell you that there are 100 leather businesses in Northamptonshire today, with a combined turnover of more than £ 200 million. Maybe we’re not manufacturing any more, but the knowledge management is here.” He said the school was changing to reflect this, moving its focus towards “ higher added value”. This will mean attracting £ 800,000 in new investment from industry and other sources, which the University of Northampton will match. It will mean continued development of overseas partnerships with institutions such as the Lederinstitut Gerberschule in Reutlingen, Germany, with which Northampton already has a strong and growing relationship ( see separate article in this issue). For overseas students, Dr Wilkinson explained that the biggest change would be the expectation that they would complete the first two years of study in their home countries– India, Pakistan and Thailand all provide important numbers of students these days– before travelling to Northampton for two further years of learning. Course work will involve “ a further reach into the manufactured product”, he continued, with fundamental research to support the teaching on offer. Research activity at the school is also growing as the department for which Dr Wilkinson is associate dean ( the School of Applied Sciences) endeavours to establish two centres of excellence: one in leather and one in bio- materials. On the leather side, Dr Wilkinson stressed that “ links back into fashion” would also grow and would set the agenda for the British School of Leather Technology for the next 100 years. Future investment The speaker who followed, Ian Scott ( right), also expressed a keen interest in preparing the next generations of leather craftspeople. He is the supply chain and sourcing director of luxury brand Mulberry, which has its roots firmly in UK soil, in Somerset in southwest England, but is growing, nationally and internationally, all the time. Nevertheless, Mr Scott said his company realised its ability to maintain a proportion of its production in the UK– along with operations it has in Turkey, China, Spain and Italy– was coming under threat, not from pressure to compete with lower- cost centres of manufacturing overseas, but from the age of its workforce. “ When we analysed the situation we realised that 50% of our workforce was over 50- years of age,” he explained. “ We realised that, as much as we want to stay in the UK, we might not be able to because we knew recruiting a skilled, younger workforce was going to be difficult. We used to have a footwear manufacturing industry in the area, but the labour pool from that has mostly gone.” Mulberry’s answer was to launch its own apprenticeship scheme. The initiative began in 2006 with government approval, which means the company receives help with funding while the young people taking part receive a qualification they can take with them if they move to another employer. For the inaugural year the company advertised ten positions, for which 58 people applied. And with ten new people coming through the door since then, Mulberry has been able to set up its own training centre where, rather than go to college, the apprentices receive four hours’ formal tuition every Friday. Hands- on training is the order of the other days, with the new recruits learning cutting, splitting, skiving and so on from seasoned colleagues on the shop floor. And with each apprentice enjoying exposure to all areas of production, Mr Scott said he had no doubt that the scheme was helping Mulberry secure its future skills base. The figure now for people over the age of 50 is 37%, and more than 30% are under 30. There are 30 young people on a waiting list to join the scheme at the moment. “ I’ve no doubt the apprentices will be future supervisors and managers,” Mr Scott told Beast to Beauty delegates. “ But the training we have put in place isn’t just for the apprentices. We’re keen to upskill our whole workforce.” As a result of what Mulberry has done, he claimed there was still a thriving industry in Somerset, employing 250 people, which will be 300 next year. He concluded from this that the UK, more generally, could still have a vibrant manufacturing industry but that a “ change in the environment” needed to take place. He spoke about how rewarding it can be for the people involved in the production of beautiful Mulberry bags to go into local schools to talk to children about craftsmanship. “ You can’t do that in the retail industry,” he commented. Rapid fire A series of quick- fire presentations followed covering various aspects of manufacturing leather and leathergoods and looking after them. Paul Harris, who recently retired from footwear brand Clarks- kicked the session off. His company took the decision to move its manufacturing offshore several years ago. Since making the move, the company has been more profitable, he explained. “ A lot of factories were losing money,” he said. This change in strategy has also put the brand in a better position to start selling shoes in important developing markets such as India and China. Mr Harris argued that, far from compromising on the quality of finished products, offshore manufacturing has led to a series of improvements. “ With the shoes being made in Vietnam or Brazil, we are able to incorporate more design,” he continued. “ And at a technical level, we’re even getting better sole bonds. The people in those factories do a really good job.” On the downside, he explained that the new set- up made it more difficult to support “ winners”, models that prove popular in particular retail markets. Retailers now have to order ahead and trust their initial forecasts because the manufacturing model Clarks now follows means a longer time- to- market and speedy replenishment of best- selling shoes is seldom an option. Looking ahead, he predicted that the cost of producing shoes in southeast China would continue to rise and that the 12 SPECIAL REPORT - BEAST TO BEAUTY CONFERENCE WORLD LEATHERJUNE/ JULY2008 Dr. Mark Wilkinson

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