Geelong Leather
Geelong Leather has hide factories in Geelong, Melbourne, Adelaide and Forbes and in recent years set up operations in Culcairn, specialising in preparing hides for manufacturers of footwear, bags and wallets primarily for the export market. Their products are also used to make the famous Sherrin AFL footballs, Nine West branded shoes and handbags and other world famous labels. General Manager Peter Stottelaar says their expansion into the region was made easier thanks to partnerships formed with Murray Now and local council. “Murray Now and the Hume Shire Council were very instrumental in getting us up here in 2007,” said Mr Stottelaar. “It’s turned out to be a very good investment and we now have everything in place to increase our production capacity and expand our factory. We are also focussed on researching ways to become fully energy self-sufficient.”
The Culcairn factory takes a raw hide, strips it of hair, preserves, weighs and measures it, before determining the quality or grade of each individual hide, then packs it for export to leather manufacturers in Europe and Asia.
“Today the Italians are still our predominant market, but there’s been a massive shift for our Australian leather because of our proximity to Asian markets,” said Mr Stottelaar. “A lot of our products are going into China, Thailand, India and Korea. These countries are now becoming massive volume buyers, particularly the Chinese. They like buying out of Australia because it only takes two to three weeks for a container to get there, whereas buying from the United States takes more than double the time.”
Leather Naturally
IF BUSINESS NEEDS PROOF OF THE BENEFITS OF RELOCATING OR EXPANDING INTO THE MURRAY REGION, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE SUCCESS STORY OF A LEATHER TANNERY’S EXPANSION INTO CULCAIRN.
Plant Manager at Culcairn, Jay Stottelaar says being located in the Murray region has a range of benefits.
“We are geographically centralised around all our abattoirs, other factories and suppliers,” he said. “We have great access to a ready workforce, currently employing 40 people and have formed great partnerships with steel fabricators, electricians and plumbers in the local area. “Our factory is also based on 700 acres of land, so we’ve now set up a farming operation where our water and waste is treated and re-used to grow canola and wheat crops. We’re able to strive towards sustainability and energy efficiency and I’m not sure we could do that as effectively in the capital cities.”
Geelong Leather is a proud advocate of the benefits of setting up operations in the Murray region which has proven to be a smart, profitable and sustainable investment for them.
