The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have given their seal of approval to a traditional leather bag maker.
The royal couple were shown around the factory floor at The Cambridge Satchel Company in Leicestershire, as part of an official visit to Leicester and the county.
The business was started in 2008 on the kitchen table of founder Julie Dean OBE, when she needed a way to pay her daughter’s school fees.
Following an initial £600 investment, she spent the first 18 months making bags alongside her mother Freda Thomas.
Today the business makes around 10,000 bags a month, which retail from around £145.
It employs 52 staff at the factory in Syston, just north of Leicester, with 40 at its head office in Cambridge, 20 in a London office and around 60 people at its shops in Covent Garden, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Bicester village.
A new Oxford shop opened two weeks ago.
Charles and Camilla were able to see a new range of bags being made in collaboration with the Prince’s Foundation.
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Some 20 per cent of the retail price will go to the charity which promotes the Prince’s passion for disciplines such as the arts, heritage, regeneration, health, wellbeing and traditional crafts.
The new line – which will initially see around 600 bags made – will launch at the end of the month.
Cambridge Satchel Company has also created collections in support The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, The Royal Opera House and Harris Tweed.
Julie Dean OBE said: “We have taken traditional bag styles and brought them bang up to date, learning from the styles and craftwork of the past.
“The leather we use is a by-product of the food industry, and would otherwise go into landfill – we even use the offcuts to make small items and charms.
“Everything is very ethical and sustainable so there is a great synchronicity between our business and the Prince’s Foundation. I loved how engaged the Prince was.”
Ms Dean said details of a recent private equity investment in the business from Hong Kong would be made public in the next few weeks, which she said will help it expand into the Asian market.
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After the 海角视频, its second biggest market right now is the US.
The company turns over around £10 million and has space to grow capacity to 20,000 bags a month, and even double that if it brings in night shifts.
Ms Dean said the business had recently overcome a couple of lossmaking years, and she was looking forward to further growth.
She said: “We are speaking at the moment with Comme des Garçons, who were the very first people we collaborated back in the day.
“We’ve also just opened the Oxford store, and we’ve had the new investment in the business which we have not made a big thing of yet.
“What that means is that – and is something I discussed with the Prince – although this is British manufacturing and British styles and heritage, we need that added expertise to help us operate in a global market.
“We are very popular in Asia and needed someone who knows the Asian market.
“That support is about shoring up the company and strengthening what we do here and having capital expenditure in the Leicestershire factory, which we are committed to.”