Tannery of the Year already winning outside recognition
01/04/2010
No sooner had the announcement of regional winners of Tannery of the Year been made in Hong Kong on March 29 when an official press release arrived in the in-boxes of local and national media in the countries of each of the ten finalists.
This was important because the principal aim of the awards programme is to earn the tanneries, and the whole leather industry, recognition in external media as a sustainable business sector that gives the highest possible priority to corporate social responsibility.
It was for precisely this reason that three of the five judges—chairman, Alan Smith, formerly Asia-Pacific regional president of Credit Suisse First Boston, Kim Reid, head of leadership and talent at British Airways, and Steven Jesseph, chief executive of Washington DC-based group Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production—were from outside the leather industry. The in-depth knowledge of the global leather sector of fellow judges, Professor Bi Shi, president of the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists Societies, and Paul Pearson, secretary of the International Council of Tanners, provided the perfect complement, while maintaining the absolute objectivity of the panel.
All experts in their fields, and experienced business figures who know a good company when they see one, all five judges read the detailed reports World Leather has published over the last year on each of the ten finalist tanneries, but then met all ten in Hong Kong on the afternoon of March 29 to listen first hand to their stories and probe a little more deeply into the examples of best practice that the Tannery of the Year contenders were all able to bring.
Within 24 hours of the results being announced, European regional winner, Bridge of Weir Leather was receiving positive media attention back home in Scotland. Glasgow-based daily newspaper the Evening Times followed up on the official press release to ask for quotes and a photograph and ran the story as the lead item in its business news coverage next day, March 31.
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