LARSA- Meeting with the Client- Geoff
Holmes
The four main meat companies in New Zealand
that slaughter the animals, and sell to supermarkets are Affco, Ansco Foods,
Silverfern Farms and Alliance.
Meat has really good value, it has seen a
huge rise in value over the last 10 years, you can find small portions of meat
at the supermarkets for about $25.
Meat companies are not interested in the
skins as there is not a lot of value behind them. All they are really focussed
on is max profit from minimum effort, and meat does this for them, they just
dispose of the skins.
Unfortunately the skin hasn’t risen in
value over time like meat.
In 1988 it was about $10 a skin. It has sat
at that level for the last 20-30 years. So far there has been no reason to
invest in it as there has been not benefit come from it.
There is very little demand for the skins
now therefore why it is so cheap. Before 2001 a skin would be around $40 when
there was a company in making finished leather products. China’s commodity
market has collapsed a bit. Their interest in buying the skins has fallen off.
Now it leaves some of the lower grade product going for about $25 a dozen.
The options are sell it as a salted skin,
take the wool off and throw it away-it then become a waste product, its likely
use is being sent overseas and made into gelatine and pet food, so therefore
there is a sustainable aspect to the product- saving it from being waste.
The potential behind the idea of using
Lambskin leather is huge, they just need help showing people this. Convince
them to invest. – Need to entice companies to come forward.
-Could
be a new design idea for the use of leather, could be ideas in how to sell it
to them.
Numbers look good- just need something a
little more to entice
Design/marketing/anything. The Client does
not mind what we come up with, he just wants to sell the product in some form,
somehow.
All the science behind the product has been
done; it’s the selling that the company needs help with.
12-14 August, Conference in Queenstown,
promoting the product.
Lambskin is naturally very light in colour
so therefore can be dyed into any colour. Lambskin is dyed in dying vat with
pre-metalized acid dyes.
Lambskin is appropriate for children’s
shoes as it has stretch and is very soft, great for growing feet.
There is also a huge market for shoes for stewardesses.
They look nice and professional and are very comfortable. A company called
Cloud nine make these.
Lambskin is COMFORTABLE!
KUMFS are interested in the product.
There is a huge variation in each skin. The
middle of each skin is the thicker, stronger area and the edges are thin and
stretchy, not recommended for shoes.
-
Find alternate use for edges to avoid any wastage.
-
Accessories are small and would be suitable use for lambskin.
The more of the product the more interest
and potential the product will get.
LASRA is a non-profit research
organisation. Their research is co-funded from the government. To receive
funding for research they pitch their ideas against others and if their idea
has potential they receive funding. That it how the initial research for the
lambskin has been funded.
LASRA Don’t have the facilities to do the
design- understanding materials is important.
Lambskin production:
raw to finished- 1 week
Pickled to finished- 4 days.
LOWE corporation, Hawkes Bay
The sell on to any and everyone-production
produce 40%
Construction of production in China is
CHEAP- yet they are keen to keep it in NZ.
Leather- synthetic product from natural
resources.
Footwear is just an option.
Pickeled state- $25 a dozen
$2.40- $2.80 per square foot.
Companies in the footwear market don’t
spend less than $6 per square foot.
PROMOTE THE SKINS-NOT JUST FOOTWEAR
How much benefit vs cost
$2-$4 million for plant.
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