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Ettinger is a company based in London and the Midlands, our head office
is in Putney and our factory's in Walsall, which is north of Birmingham.
We've been manufacturing leather goods since 1934.
We're one of the few companies still making in the UK
and that, to us, is a very important thing, particularly for exports where people
want
made in GB, made in the UK.
Ettinger started looking at the Far East market
when we received the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of leather goods from the
Prince of Wales
in 1996.
We felt then, it was the time to move seriously into the Far East
and at the time, we went on a government mission, which really helped us
understand and there was some hand-holding going on
and for the first time out there it was
very beneficial and I would advise any company wanting to
export seriously to the Far East, to go on a government mission, or their trade
association mission.
We went out, we met a lot of people
and critically, we had a look around and we may sure that
our products would be right for that country.
I remember well a story where one chap was
making waistcoats in England and at the end of the week's exhibition and showing
it to lots of people,
he hadn't had one
ounce of interest.
When he asked around and spoke to buyers, they actually said, 'Well, we don't wear waistcoats in Japan'.
And that's a critical thing, you know, you've got to go out there with products
that they're wanting to buy.
They've got to be beautifully made,
they've got to be well packaged
and generally
finished to the Japanese quality, which is
extremely high.
The challenges that Ettinger faced when setting up in Japan
was their attention to detail and the expectation of only the finest quality.
We were already selling to some of the best stores around the world,
but in fact, the first order we sent out to Japan, they sent about twenty
percent back and we looked at it and
there was nothing wrong with it
in our eyes.
So I hopped on a plane and went over with some of the product and
they took me to their inspection areas and there were a dozen people, with huge
magnifying glasses,
inspecting the product and in fact, the reason they sent them back, was
some items had nine stitches per inch and others had eight and a half and they said
'That's not good enough'.
Couldn't see it with the human eye, but to the Japanese, it mattered.
And since then, we've changed the whole attitude in our factory.
Everybody thinks
to a Japanese standard.
And it's a state of mind, it's not skills. We had the skills, it was just a state
of mind,
caring about what you do,
making sure that everybody who's making the product cares as well and that did it for us. We found,
once we got established in Japan, and it takes time, I mean Japan,
it's something, it's a long term
business. After about five or six years, the brand started building and we were
in many stores,
we found that the Koreans
started coming to us beacause they all go shopping in Tokyo and in Japan
and that's how we found our Korean market and our Korean
partners, because they'd seen us and they came to London and said 'We'd like to work with you'.
So that was an important part of being in Japan.
The lessons Ettinger learned from working in Japan, is that
every country is different. I mean, often people lump together the whole of the Far East
and that isn't so, I mean,
China is, in a way, far faster moving than Japan in terms of, they're already
looking at some of the smaller brands and niche brands after about five or
six years.
In Japan it took far longer.
And it's just the way different countries behave. Korea
is more similar to Japan,
but they're also wary of new brands. And in all these countries you've got to
do a lot of marketing
and PR to tell people about
who you are and what you doing.
The Japanese market
has done for Ettinger
what we're trying now to emulate in other countries.
It's made us realise we have got a brand and we will be able to sell in many
more countries around the world.
After about eight, nine years in Japan, they opened an Ettinger's store in Tokyo
and we're now sold in about 160 stores across japan.
So,
it wakes one up to what is possible.
In Korea we're now in about seven or eight stores and we could see it
expanding thirty or forty
within two or three years
and we've just gone into China in the last couple of months and it's completely
new and
we're working hard there, but, you know, we can see that as being a bigger market,
potentially, than even Japan
over the next ten years.
Well I think the Far East always seems very daunting if one hasn't been out
there before.
It's important to do a trip, a reccy trip, to have a look at the stores,
and to talk to some of the
people on the shop floor
and make sure your products are right for that market, that country.
And then I would definitley go on a government mission,
where you're helped and given
advice by the embassy out there, often it's a small exhibition and they invite
buyers.
One needs hand-holding to start with.
Once one's done it once, it's a lot easier,
but one mustn't give up. It takes time,
it doesn't just happen overnight.