Ettinger Reports 30% Online Sales Rise as UK Leather Skills Shortage Limits Growth
Walsall leather goods maker Ettinger says online sales rose 30% year on year and UK sales grew by a fifth, while skills shortages constrain expansion.
The story in focus
Ettinger, a Walsall leather goods manufacturer, reports online sales up 30% year on year and UK sales up by a fifth, driven by younger shoppers, The Guardian reports. The firm keeps all production in the UK and cites skills shortages as its main constraint on expansion, against a backdrop of falling industry employment.
- Online sales rose 30% year on year and UK sales grew by a fifth, according to chief executive Robert Ettinger.
- Ettinger keeps manufacturing in the UK, with most processes done by hand at its Walsall factory.
- The company says finding and training staff is difficult, limiting plans to add five to 10 workers.
- UK leather goods manufacturing employment fell from about 37,000 to 7,000 over 30 years, The Guardian reports.
Sales growth and younger customers
Ettinger, a leather goods manufacturer based in Walsall, has reported a 30% year-on-year rise in online sales and a one-fifth increase in UK sales, according to The Guardian. Chief executive Robert Ettinger attributed the growth to younger shoppers increasingly valuing British-made goods that can be repaired and last for years.
The company, which holds royal warrants and supplies wallets, cigar cases and other leather accessories, positions itself between large luxury labels and the high street. A leather tote bag sells for just under £800, compared with more than £2,000 for a comparable Louis Vuitton product, according to the report.
Skills shortage limits expansion
Most of Ettinger’s production is done by hand at its factory near Birmingham, where about 20 people work, mostly women. Robert Ettinger said the process cannot be automated. Gary Billingham, who has worked at the factory since the 1980s, said recruiting and training new staff is difficult, with the workforce aged between their 40s and 60s.
Billingham said taking on five to 10 additional people would be welcome, but suitable candidates are not available. Robert Ettinger pointed to apprenticeship systems in mainland Europe as a model the UK lacks.
Industry decline in context
The Guardian reports that UK leather goods manufacturing employment has fallen from about 37,000 to 7,000 over 30 years. Walsall had about 50 leather goods manufacturers in 1970, according to the Wolverhampton Heritage and History Society, and now has about five factories, Billingham said. Ettinger cut about seven staff after the Covid pandemic hit trade.
What limits Ettinger’s ability to expand production in the UK?
Ettinger says finding and training new staff is difficult, with its workforce aged between their 40s and 60s. It would like to hire five to 10 more people, but suitable candidates are not available, The Guardian reports.
Sources & further reading
- ‘You can’t bring in robots’: the leather firm handmaking everything from wallets to cigar cases ↗The Guardian
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