The honour follows the London-based guild’s sponsorship of Mr Vogtlander’s three-year leather technology studies at the University of Northampton’s Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT).

He is the first ever student to receive funding from the company to pursue this programme of studies at Northampton.

Since Mr Vogtlander’s receipt of a first-class degree from the ICLT this past June, he has been working in the role of Knowledge Transfer Partners (KTP) Associate at his alma mater. His position is the fruit of a collaboration between the university and Scottish Leather Group, which has been funded by Innovate UK.

Innovate UK, part of the non-departmental government body UK Research and Innovation, created the KTP scheme to link businesses with universities and graduates, with the intention to enable the business to grow and innovate through the sharing of expertise, as the ICLT explained in a LinkedIn post which congratulated Mr Vogtlander on his new role over the summer.

Businesses who engage with the KTP scheme can achieve profit increases of over £1 million (around $1.36 million) on average. Depending on the partnership, KTPs can last between 12 and 36 months.

A male relative of Mr Vogtlander’s was the first chrome tanner to emerge in Holland following a move from Germany to the Netherlands during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Image: Luc Vogtlander.