‘I am pleased to say that the Leather Business in the UK is operating with a reduced staff to maintain social distancing and workers welfare and confirm that we have excellent UK stocks of over 80 different ranges – Lead times are slightly longer than normal at around 5-7 days . Please call or mail us if necessary leave a message and we will get back to you

Our company owned factory, which is SA8000, 4 Pillar SMETA and SEDEX audited, in India is back and running as of the 5th of May albeit on a slightly reduced capacity so we are able to offer a bespoke service and or large volume supply still with quick turn round

I have been known to harp on about Social Audits and ethically run factories and our responsibility in the West to understand the importance of audits and ethically run factories when trading in developing countries . I was appalled last week to see documentaries on the BBC coming from Delhi and Mumbai showing hordes of people without money and food. These workers had been laid off by the factory owners without pay and were very often living on the streets and queuing up to 3 miles for food handouts –if the food ran out they went hungry. It is common place in many parts of India that workers are paid piece rate and often work as families in a group they often sleep under tables in the factories – when there is no work there is no pay

I can assure you that our workforce in Chennai were laid off on full pay for the 6 weeks of the lockdown and that we haven’t and can’t claim any of this money back from the INDIAN Government. Caring for a workforce and ensuring that a factory is fully audited does come at a cost but surely it is better sometimes to pay a little more than to let workers be exploited and their children starve.’

Published on: May 5th, 2020