Leather manufacturer creates jobs after funding package

LEEDS-BASED leather manufacturers Yarwood Leather have invested in new machinery to keep up with customer demand.

The firm said it had seen a “substantial upturn” in orders, and had been helped by Yorkshire Bank in acquiring a leather cutting machine to fulfill them.

The company has employed three more people as a result.

Yarwood said it has seen a return of manufacturing to the UK, after a period where services in the industry were heavily outsourced to the Far East.

Established in 1967, Yarwood Leather specialises in leather processing and has taken on an additional 10 staff in the last 12 months alone, now operating with a team of 40.

Leeds based Yarwood Leather is the first UK leather manufacturer to introduce the Gerber Taurus II, a state-of-the-art leather cutting machine used primarily for precision leather cutting in the aviation, automotive and retail furniture industries. The company received a funding package from Yorkshire Bank to help cover the cost of the new machine and the package was delivered by Jonathan Russell, Relationship Manager at the Bank’s Business and Private Banking Centre in Leeds.

Yarwood’s managing director Nick Batty said:”Yarwood Leather has experienced impressive growth in the past few years and we expect this to continue, particularly in the aviation and upholstery sector.

“Our new leather cutting machine is the latest of its kind and will operate in tandem with our other machines, helping to fulfil a growing order book for customers across industries.”

“We have a very positive relationship with our manager, Jonathan Russell, who is always keen to listen to our ideas, helping us to implement our growing ambitions for the company by providing a range of Yorkshire Bank facilities to support our changing needs as we take the business forward.”