Illness forces possum tannery owners to sell up
29/04/2011
The owners of Naked Possum have confirmed to local media that illness means they will be unable to continue, but that they have already received expressions of interest from potential buyers.
An award-winning café is the centrepiece of Naked Possum, situated at the edge of the Kahurangi forest in Golden Bay, but the venture has built up around an eco-tannery in which one of the founders, Grant Fitz-William processes the skins of possums, small marsupials that were introduced to New Zealand in the nineteenth century.
By the end of the twentieth century, possums were officially recognised as a pest in New Zealand because of the harm they can cause to trees in forests such as the Kahurangi. Mr Fitz-William and his partner, Jocelyn Rae, set up their business to add value to skins that were becoming available as part of a programme to preserve fragile forests.
It’s a labour-intensive operation, involving a secret recipe for adding just the right amounts of vegetable tanning agents at just the right time and a custom-developed buffing machine. The tanned skins go into artefacts such as lampshades and small leathergoods that go on sale in the on-site Naked Possum shop.
The couple took the decision to sell the business after Mr Fitz-William was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Ms Rae told local media: “It is with deepest regret that we must now accept that we no longer have the energy or resources to continue managing our Naked Possum venture. In the circumstances, we have had to make the heart-wrenching decision to sell our property and business and to hand our dream on to others.”
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