Leathergoods brand flies the flag in China
12/03/2012
Founder of the company, Kenyan-born designer Jas Sehmbi, told a BBC Radio programme on March 12 that the pattern-making, cutting, stitching, finishing and packing of his company’s products all takes place at its manufacturing hub in Essex. “If we believe in our product and are able to manufacture, why not do it here? This is the way it should be,” he said.
He explained that, through an important contact he had made in China, a long-standing customer, the daughter of a prominent politician, he had secured a retail outlet in a Shanghai shopping mall. On the advice of its contact, Jas MB gave the shop the most British look and feel it could, even going so far as to ship Edwardian, Georgian and Victorian doors to China.
Jas MB bags fetch prices of between £800 and £2,000 for one bag in the Shanghai store. “They buy our bags mainly because they are made in England. They could easily copy my bag there and produce it there, but because it’s from England, they spend that sort of money.”
Share this story:
