Why we stopped buying leather from anyone we could not name
It costs a little more per hide. It removes an entire category of question from a buyer's desk.
The questions changed a few years ago. Buyers stopped asking what the leather cost and started asking where it came from — which tannery, how the water was handled, whether it could be traced.
For a while we answered honestly, which meant answering badly. We knew our agent. We did not always know the tannery.
The rule now
We buy from tanneries we can name, and we record which one against every order. Where a supplier could not tell us, we stopped buying from them. Three suppliers left over it.
It costs a few per cent on material. We absorbed part of it and passed part of it on, and told buyers which was which.
A poor trade if you only count the material line. An obvious one if you count the conversations it ends.
Written by the Lab Multi team. For press enquiries or to speak to the people behind this work, contact info@labmulti.com.
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