The Great Sheep industry and its Juicy Fifth Quarter A MARKET SURVEY COMMISSIONED BY MEAT SOUTH WEST FOR THE SOUTH WEST of ENGLAND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (SWRDA) 16/4/07M 16/4/07M The Great Sheep industry and its Juicy Fifth Quarter CONTENTS Section Page 1.1.1 Aims of the Study 1 1.1.2 Preface 1 1.1.3 Background 2 1.2 Market Overview 3 1.2.1F Fig.1 UK Sheep Industry Structure 3 1.2.2 The Sheep Industry, Key Facts and Figures 4 1.2.2F Fig.2 UK Sheepskin Industry Flowchart 5 1.2.3 The UK Fellmonger 6 1.2.3F Fig.3 Fellmongers in the UK, 1988 7 1.2.4 The UK Hide Market 8 1.2.4F Fig.4 Hide Markets in the UK 1988 10 1.2.4F Fig.5 UK Ovine Leather Flowchart 1988 11 1.2.5 The Meat Market - Abattoir and Butcher 11 1.2.6 Butchers 12 1.2.7 Supermarkets 13 1.2.8 FARMA 13 1.2.9 The UK Wool Industry 14 1.2.10 Sheep and Sheep Farmers 16 1.2.11F Fig.6 Sheep Farming Stratification Flowchart 17 1.2.11 The Sheep Industry Supply Chain - Conclusions 18 CONTENTS - Continued Section Page 1.3 The Sheepskin Industry 19 1.3.1 Origins in the South West of England, 1200 - 1900 19 1.3.2F Fig.7 UK Sheepskin Industry Structure Chart 20 1.3.2 20th Century Traditions 21 1.3.3 Sheepskin Product Offer 22 1.3.4 Sheepskin Exports 22 1.3.5 The UK Sheepskin Industry 1970 - 1989 23 1.3.6 The Merger and Monopoly Years 24 1.3.7 Sheepskin in the Vivienne Westwood Years 1980 - 2000 25 1.3.8 Global Sheepskin Overview 1990 - 2000 27 1.3.9 The Crash 28 1.3.10 The Sheepskin Industry, Planning for the 21st Century 29 1.3.11 The Sheep Industry, Planning for the 21st Century 31 1.4 UK Sheepskin Tanning 31 1.4.1 The Tanner 31 1.4.2 The Cast 32 1.4.3 Sheepskin Tanning, Global Overview 33 1.4.4 Lessons from the Global Sheepskin Tanning Industry for the UK 36 1.5 The Future of the UK Sheepskin Tanning Industry 37 1.5.1 The Second Oldest Profession 37 1.6 Summary of Conclusions for the UK Sheepskin Tanning Sector 38 Appendix 1.1 Sheepskin design – Early on to 1989 39 1.2 Sheepskin design – 1990 to 2000 40 1.3 Sheepskin design – to 2006 41 1.4 Sheepskin Tanning Case Study 1 42 1.5 Sheepskin Tanning Case Study 2 44 1.6 Illustration of Tanning Utopia 45 Acknowledgements 46 1.1.1 AIMS OF THE STUDY: ■ To provide a situation and market analysis of the Sheepskin Industry in the South West. ■ To identify opportunities for improving the profitability and sustainability of the Industry. ■ To provide guidelines for the future direction of individual businesses involved in the Sheepskin Industry with particular reference to the Tanning sector. 1.1.2 PREFACE Sheep have been farmed in Britain for over 5,000 years. Even before the Romans conquered these Islands in 43 AD, Sheep and Wool production was famed and widely traded. During Medieval times the Wool Staple was the main source of the Kings’ revenue, shaping much of the Nation’s foreign policy. The 18th Century Industrial Revolution in the UK was as much driven by demand for wool textiles, as spinning and weaving were driven by the flood of new technologies. Gradually over the 19th & 20th Century with the growth and spread of an urbanized population (in 1901 the UK population was 38.3m, only 14% of whom lived in towns and cities, by 2001 the population was 59m, over 90% of whom lived in urban centres), Meat overtook Wool as the raison d’etre of the Sheep Industry. This survey starts by inspecting the main links in the chain of supply of today’s Great Sheep Industry (see Overview on page 3) and noting their dynamic and sometimes stormy relationships in order to understand how the Sheepskin Industry, the Fifth Quarter fits in. Then goes on to look at the activities of stakeholders within this Sheepskin Industry. Finally concentrating on the endangered Woolskin processing sector (Tanneries) in an attempt to find ways of ensuring this 2,000 year old tanning tradition is passed on to the next generation of young UK based Sheepskin scientists, technicians, designers, manufacturers and marketeers, to continue even more effectively adding value to the Sheep’s Fifth Quarter. 1 1.1.3 BACKGROUND Throughout the 20th century, the Sheepskin Industry in the South of England had pole position in the tanning, wholesaling, manufacture and retailing of sheepskins and sheepskin products. In this report Sheepskin will always mean the original wool-on-leather ‘coat’ (Woolskin) of the animal or products made from it. At its apogee in the 1960’s, 70’s and first part of the 1980’s the Sheepskin Industry employed around 5,000 people, over 50% of whom were based in South West of England. The 6 biggest Companies (tanneries and manufacturers) employed 2140 people with a combined turnover then of £30 million p.a. In the South West, Woolskin Tanners like Morlands, Bailys, Devonia at Buckfastleigh, Tanns, Nichols and outside the region, Tanneries like Spalding Sheepskin, Webbs of Stowmarket, Union Leather at Nuneaton, Gomshall Tanneries in Surrey and Antartex in Scotland, were well known ‘Brand’ names. More than 14 specialist Sheepskin tanners producing finished sheepskins for clothing, slippers and footwear linings, hearth rugs, yet more slippers, infant care, car seat covers many other products retailed comprehensively in every major high street throughout the UK and exported to more than 26 countries. By the beginning of the 1990’s 2 commercial Tanneries remained and employment was down to less than 350 people. In 2006 employment in the Sheepskin Industry South West is less than 250 people with a combined total turnover in the order of £10m p.a. Specialist retailers can be counted on the fingers of 1 hand. Though an integral part of the livestock Industry, the Sheepskin sector has always tended to operate in isolation from the rest of the Sheep sector, however: • Recent EC legislation arising from the various food and farming crises over the last decade; BSE in mid-90’s, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2003, Scrapie elimination, Animal By Product Regulations (ABPR) have impacted heavily on the Tanning sector which shares a back yard with Farming and Food and encouraged -some would say forced - Sheepskin Tanners to take a vigorous role in representing wider Sheep Industry interests as well as their own concerns, to Government agencies like Defra, the Veterinary Service & the DTI. • Rapid changes in consumer taste and lifestyle have led to sharp fluctuations in demand for sheepskin products. Here again the Sheepskin Industry reacted positively by taking a formative part in the design process from the 1990’s to the present. (A telling sign of this change, in 2000 , 1 in 18 of the population had ethnic origins outside the UK; by 2005 this ratio is 1 in 14 people). 2 • Globalization signalled by the growth of China, India and the Tiger economies as major exporting processors and manufacturers given wing by the Internet revolution of the late 1990’s, together changed trading patterns beyond recognition in all sectors for ever. The jury is still out on how well Sheepskin businesses will adapt this time round. (Nb. Unlike China, Japan, a major Far Eastern purchaser of finished Sheepskin and sheepskin products during its phenomenal growth period over the last 3 decades never developed an on- shore sheepskin tanning capacity). 1.2 MARKET OVERVIEW 1.2.1F Fig.1 SHEEP INDUSTRY STRUCTURE Sheep Industry Stucture Chamois Chamois Tanner Parchment Nappa Fell Sheepskin Leather Monger Tanner Hide Market Mini Hide Exports Market Offal & Rendering Abattoir/Butcher Meat Sheep Trading/Auctioneers/Sheepmarts Wool Slink Skins Farmers/Small Holders/Breed Societies (all imported) Milk Products Landscape Sheep Management 3 1.2.2 THE SHEEP INDUSTRY, KEY FACTS AND FIGURES ■ The annual UK Sheep Kill including Ewes and Rams has averaged 16.5 m p.a. over 10 year period 1996 - 2005, with peak in 1999 at 19.1m and low in 2001 of 12.96m. ■ The UK Sheep meat kill in 2005 was 14.1million lambs (+ 2.2million ewes and rams) ■ Of which England killed 9,734,489 lambs - 69%. ■ The South West of England lamb kill was 2,648,695, 18.8% of the UK kill and 27.2% of the kill in England. Undertaken from 11,500 holdings. ■ Finished lamb dead weight (dw) value 2005 for UK finished lamb was around £775m. (Sources: English Beef and Lamb Executive, EBLEX; Mea tLivestock Commission, MLC; Defra Slaughter/Farm stats). ■ 16m+ woolskins (average total UK yearly kill) represents a huge, sustainable national asset. ■ Only 60,000 UK skins p.a. are processed by the remaining UK tanning sector, less than 0.45% of the total UK kill. (Nb. Contrast this with late 70s early 80s when 1.5m to 2.0 m sheepskins were tanned p.a. in the UK) ■ At a notional retail sales price of £50 per skin the revenue from UK tanned sheepskins realizes £3m p.a. (60,000 x £50) ■ On this basis however, tanned UK sheepskins at this price could gross £50m p.a. per million. ■ In 2005 raw lambskin wool-on exports realized £2.6m per million skins (x 9.74m). And £4.9m per million for raw wool-on sheepskins (x 2.54m).