Leather products are ubiquitous in our daily lives, from sofas to handbags, shoes, and wallets. Even a small piece of leather can be truly magical. Hong Kong's leather industry boasts a glorious history dating back to the 20th century. According to the Leather Resource Centre, Hong Kong's leather manufacturing industry boasts over a century of history. During the 1970s and 1980s, Hong Kong experienced rapid industrial development, with hundreds of tanneries operating there. Leather exports, for many years, occupied the top three positions in the city's industrial exports. With the northward migration of local industry, the original ten leather factories in the 1970s and 1980s have dwindled to just one. Kean Pak, the third-generation successor of Shui Hing Leather Factory, Hong Kong's only remaining factory, stated his intention to remain in Hong Kong, upholding Made in Hong Kong principles and carrying on his father-in-law's legacy.
Written by Liu Zhiheng, Photography by Zhang Zhanrui
According to a trade and economic research report released by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in May, Hong Kong's leather goods manufacturers and suppliers export a wide variety of leather consumer goods to the international market. The local leather goods industry is renowned for its high quality, flexibility, short production cycles, and rapid response to trends, as well as its ability to meet specific customer requirements. This has made Hong Kong a key sourcing center for leather consumer goods. Due to rising production costs, local manufacturers have relocated the majority of their production activities to mainland China and Southeast Asia, leaving only a small number of employees in Hong Kong to handle small, urgent orders. According to official data from the Census and Statistics Department, in 2021, only 30 people were employed in the leather consumer goods manufacturing industry in Hong Kong, leaving the Shui Hing Leather Factory in Kwai Chung as the only local leather factory.
I have a close relationship with leather since I was a child.
Born in the 1990s, Bai Haoqian has been passionate about leather since childhood. His maternal grandfather, Cai Ruigan, a leather worker, founded Ruixing from scratch. His father, Bai Jiancheng, and mother, Cai Hui, also in the same industry, later took over the business. Under the meticulous management of the first generation, the company enjoyed a prosperous period with four factories in Hong Kong and Mainland China: two in Shenzhen, one in Jiangmen, and one in Hong Kong. He mentioned that his grandfather had run the business under the name "Ruihua" until his parents took over, changing it to "Ruixing" in 1985. So, while the Ruixing Leather Factory boasts a 38-year history, it's actually much longer than that.
The leather industry is a traditional one, and the processing inevitably produces strong odors and wastewater, which is unacceptable to most people. Bai Haoqian, who grew up in a leather factory, said he's long since grown accustomed to it and doesn't take it seriously. Take Ruixing, for example. Every day, slaughtered cow hides arrive from Hong Kong slaughterhouses and are immediately transported to the factory for processing. Each hide is salted and undergoes more than ten steps, including repeated washing and soaking. It takes two to three weeks for a single raw hide to be transformed into a semi-finished hide, which is then exported as raw material. Some may undergo further processing, such as dyeing and spraying, into finished leather for industrial use.
Cattle hides are the primary source of local leather, and the quantity supplied depends on the daily slaughter volume at slaughterhouses. He mentioned that his father used to slaughter over a hundred cattle daily for over 20 years, but with changing times and circumstances, the number has now dropped to just a few dozen, impacting the local leather supply.
Taking over the factory and developing its own brand
Bai Jiancheng and his wife, the second generation of the Ruixing Leather Factory, have three sons. The second son, Bai Haoqian, is eager to take over. He admits that his primary motivation is not wanting his parents' hard work and efforts to go to waste. "Look at it from two perspectives: the good news is a legacy, but the bad news is that after you return, your family will have a much easier time running the business than you will."
Originally studying business management in the UK, his father asked him if he was willing to take over after graduation, and he then studied leather courses overseas and officially returned home in 2014 to help. Despite his childhood, it was a test for him after all when it came to understanding the actual work of the factory. After returning to Hong Kong, he first interned at his uncle's factory in mainland China to accumulate practical experience.
Bai Haoqian mentioned that orders for the leather factory had been gradually declining since 2010, and his relatives were not optimistic about the business. Therefore, after taking over Ruixing, he considered how to improve operations and transform the company. He considered starting a material retail business in addition to leather manufacturing and selling raw materials, creating his own brand, and seeking new opportunities.
After taking over the family business, he founded the brand "The Lederer" in 2015, switching from traditional wholesale business to retail, taking care of everything from production to retail, providing OEM production, customized leather goods, selling DIY material kits, etc., and occasionally opening workshops.
It can be said that it is easier said than done for traditional old shops to transform. He recalled that his parents objected first, then a studio "spent a lot of useless money" due to decoration, and then broke up the partnership with his partners. Bai Hao-chen re-led the operation in 2016, turning the company from high liabilities to breakeven, and He admitted that he was brave in this step and invested a lot of funds, but fortunately, the life of the store was more ideal than expected.
He believes that simply relying on being the last leather factory in Hong Kong would be difficult to compete in the market. Comparing purely on leather, prices are not as low as those in India, Bangladesh, and the quality is far from comparable to European and American leather, such as Italy. Furthermore, most people wouldn't buy leather for no reason. Therefore, the brand chose to emphasize 100% Hong Kong manufacturing, operating a seamless process from leather and production to retail and maintenance. His main product is his in-house hand-sewing leather kits. These are designed by Hong Kong designers using raw materials from the Ruixing Leather Factory. The kits include the necessary leather and tools for ease of use. He also offers DIY hand-sewing leather workshops, hoping to provide knowledge beyond the product itself, such as tool usage and leather care, and tap into a new customer base. The shop frequently features its own designs, and leather enthusiasts can purchase the kits and make their own hand-sewing pieces themselves. Some instructional videos are available on the website. For gifts or personal use, customers can simply purchase the finished hand-sewn pieces. If you have intact old leather goods at home, you can give them a second life and make them into new leather goods. A customer once used an old leather jacket as the leather material to make it into a new leather card holder and a small leather bag.
https://www.capital-hk.com/interview/2023julyizzue_thelederer/
