Australia is saying goodbye to the Blundstone boot as manufacturing moves offshore to Asia. The tannery which supplies the leather for Blundstone boots are now looking at export markets for their hides.
Tasmanian-based Cuthbertson Brothers supply more than a thousand hides a week to Blundstones but Doug Dickinson says finding a new buyer for the hides should be easy. ‘[Asian manufacturers] are buying hides out of Tasmania anyhow, why wouldn’t they buy the hides that will make the heavyweight material?’ he asks.
‘[Blundstone’s departure] won’t affect Cuthbertson Brothers at all, in actual fact some of the shackles will come off us. We are going to continue to buy sheepskins, we’re going to continue to trade in sheepskins, we’re going to continue to buy hides, and we’re going to continue to process hides.’
