When people share a joint mission, the results tend to show it. You can feel the difference. It's the same with our sheepskin.
Our co-founder Ben comes from a long line of exporters and innovators. Back in 1881, his great great grandfather helped initiate one of the first shipments of frozen sheep meat from New Zealand to Great Britain. Later, alongside working with sheepskin, Ben’s father, Robert Wilson, and close mate, Sir Tim Wallis, helped pioneer New Zealand’s deer industry – instigating the first helicopter hunting of wild deer and establishing the first deer farms and export markets for New Zealand venison and co-products (but that’s a whole other story).
Working with animal products have run through the family ever since, carried on through generations of experience handed down.
In 1997, tanning in New Zealand became no longer economically viable. It was not just the increased expense of processing; it was that New Zealand had lost a lot of the skills and capability to craft sheepskin at scale.
To solve this Robert Wilson combined his decades of experience in New Zealand (including Windward skins and Tasman Woolskins) with long-established relationships in China. Robert, with the help of fellow Kiwi and Wilson family friend, Leroy Parker, was instrumental in helping establish a sheepskin tannery in Xuanhua, China. The tannery combined New Zealand’s tanning technology with China manufacturing capability, hands-on craftmanship and ability to scale. To this day the tannery is a world-class facility built specifically for tanning luxury sheepskin products – and is one that we’re proud to be connected with.
That’s why manufacturing in China was never about cutting costs. It was about the ability to scale to keep pace with global demand while working with some of the best tanners and manufacturing technology in the world, to retain the high quality you know and love.
Today, the tannery is owned and operated by Auskin Group, with the production facility soon to celebrate 30 years in operation under the technical direction of our friend, Leroy Parker. Many of the original team are still working in the business, and the factory holds Oeko-Tex, Intertek, SEDEX and SMETA standards, is ISO 9001:2015 certified. Interestingly, the environmental standards are even more stringent in China than in New Zealand, and Auskin invests heavily in solar energy and water treatment technology, with every part of the chain being held to more than industry standards ask for.
With so much to be proud of, Wilson & Dorset and Auskin’s relationship is more than a supplier customer - it is a partnership which spans decades, cemented with W&D now having a shareholding in Auskin Group.
We visit often. Keeping in touch matters to us – we've shared everything from business meetings to weddings, to simply enjoying meals over wine (or Baijiu), whether we're in China or they're here.
That’s why we don't shop around. We don't just buy from anyone. We don't chase price at the cost of quality. We're driven by a joint mission: to deliver the best sheepskin in the world.
As long as we're in the sheepskin game, we'll be working with our friends at Auskin, bringing you the best quality sheepskin in the world.
