Bridgnorth tannery wins global customers
A tannery which makes leather gardening products is aiming for new markets after winning new clients at a global trade show.
Bridgnorth-based Bradley’s Tannery, founded by Bradley Burn in 1984, has seen exports grow from just five per cent of its business 20 years ago to 85 per cent today.
Now the business is looking to further expand into overseas markets having signed up more than a dozen new customers while exhibiting at the Ambiente Show in Frankfurt.
As National Gardening Week takes place this week and gardeners across the UK begin to tackle their outdoor spaces in earnest, Mr Burn said he hoped to continue growing his export market.
Bradley’s Tannery is one of a handful of British firms that curries leather to turn into a wide range of goods, such as bags, gloves and hats.
Its gardening collection of gloves, secateurs pouches, arm protectors, aprons and tool carriers, is sold around the world, including in Japan and Taiwan. Germany and Austria account for about 60 per cent of its European sales.
Bradley’s Tannery, which counts British royal houses, Selfridges and Liberty among its customers employs six people at its Stanley Lane workshop.
The company has worked with the Department of International Trade to develop its export markets, including by attending trade shows.
Mr Burn added: “As a very small, niche manufacturer, these are huge outlays but you have to be there, so having access to expert help and funding is vital if we are to compete with larger companies.
"Going to the Ambiente show not only gave us many new leads to pursue, we also signed up new customers, which is great.”
Richard Smith, head of the DIT international trade team in Shropshire, who has advised Bradley’s Tannery for a number of years, said: “It’s great news that Bradley has secured new customers and has other leads to pursue after the trade show in Germany.
"His is a very small Shropshire company that makes high quality goods for a number of niche markets, so the fact that it is stocked in retail stores around the world is something to be proud of.”
Companies interested in breaking into overseas markets and taking advantage of the global appetite for UK goods and services can visit the new online trade hub, great.gov.uk, part of the Government’s Exporting is GREAT initiative.
