After 85 years in business Mano Lederwaren Mosbach and Gruber GmbH & Co KG is to cease its production by the end of the year. After losing a key Japanese client the company has relied on small clients, with production losing profitability day by day.

Hans Rupp, chief executive, explains the Japanese have pulled out of their 100,000 purse production agreement because the Japanese Yen lost about 15% of its value compared to the euro in the last 15 years.

Johannes Mosbach and Alois Gruber were founded in 1919. Gruber produced high quality leather goods, Mosbach cheaper small leather items. In 1945 the two merged to form Mosbach, Gruber & Co run by Paul Saur, who focused on the manufacture of small leather items and turned the firm’s name into a generic term used in reference to leather products. With a new collection and marketing strategy the company created the brand Mano which might still be marketable today.

At the same time yet another leather boutique is facing closure in Germany. Kerstin Pape, owner of the Nienburg-based boutique opened in 1987, says she no longer sees profitably in her work. “A lot has changed during the 17 years that I’ve been working in the leather industry,” she says. “It gets harder and harder for specialist shops to sustain themselves. More and more suppliers, including those new to the industry, offer leather bags, purses and rucksacks. There are also more and more suppliers of cheap goods who bring down prices. An increasing number of people buy their goods over the Internet. With the economic slowdown fewer and fewer people are prepared to pay prices corresponding to high quality products.”

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