Thick-skinned company expands despite crunch

13/10/2010

IF the leather interior in your prized convertible car suffers a tear or your leather jacket looks past its best, where do you turn?

For thousands of people across the UK, they turn to the Leather Repair Company.

The Withernsea-based firm specialises in restoring and repairing leather goods, from custom car interiors and motorbike leathers to handbags and antiques.

And thanks to a boom in business the company has now expanded into a unit at the Beacon Road Industrial Estate.

Director Richard Hutchins says the recession has genuinely had a huge positive impact on the business.

He said: "The recession has helped us enormously as more people are turning to us to repair or restore their leather goods, rather than buy new ones.

"As the world progressed and money became easier to earn people developed a throwaway, disregard attitude.

"But when the recession hit people began to watch their spending and realised that rather than throw things away they could be brought back to life.

"It has helped the business big time and I think now people are reawakened to that fact they will continue to repair and restore into the future."

The leather company was initially only a sideline to Mr Hutchins' valeting business, which he has been running for almost 25 years and has worked on everything from hatchbacks to helicopters.

However as demand grew, with people sending in items from across the UK, the Leather Repair Company was born.

Now the company has its own line of specially formulated clean and care products, which have been designed and manufactured to enable customers to keep their items in tip-top condition at home.

And with a successful franchise now being rolled out, the company is set to expand even further.

Mr Hutchins added: "Leather repair can be a phenomenal business - it can be a multi-million pound business which can employ many people but it is a case of getting it right."

The deal was overseen by Dale Gooderham of Garness Jones.

Mr Hutchins added: "Dale was very helpful and bent over backwards to ensure everything went smoothly."