Peter Howard retires

Peter Howard has retired as factory manager of Cape Produce Company's Pelts Products tannery in South Africa. He intends to work full-time for his farm and sheep feedlot, a business which he has built up in his spare time. The son of a tanner (Fred), he joined Eddels management training programme in 1968 where he completed the LIRI diploma in shoe manufacturing. In 1976 he joined King Tanning where his father was managing director and a year later was appointed assistant production manager. A year after that he became production manager in a plant producing 70,000 square metres of finished leather/month with 250 staff. In 1988 he joined Silverton, the largest tannery at that time but these were troubled times for the company and in 1990 they were relocated to become Ladysmith Leathers. Howard decided to join Pelts Products as factory manager. Pelts Products is the manufacturing division of Cape Produce and has grown from semi-processing 1,200 hides and 6,400 sheepskins/day with 355 staff to a peak of 2,500 hides and 10,000 sheepskins/ day with 250 staff.