Classic Sheepskins

Classic Sheepskins was started by Kieran Callaghan’s father Maurice back in 1969. The company started with wool tiling and then moved into the sheepskin car seats. Kieran says at one stage of that business they had fitted sheepskin seat covers for most commonly available makes of cars.

Chinese processed rugs, covers and fleeces out competed the local product on price so the company started focusing on footwear and rugs, including a custom tanning service where people bring in their own skins for tanning.

Classic Sheepskins buy raw skins from the meat processors and tan them for commercial and retail customers.

Kieran says tanning a sheepskin from start to a sellable product takes about 6 weeks and is very labour intensive. Due to the labour component most tanneries have been moved off shore to places with cheaper labour and less regulations.

He says their company has tried to differentiate from the big off shore tanneries by producing products for smaller niche markets and trying to keep their products as natural as possible with higher standards of quality.

The fact that all Classic Sheepskins products are NZ made is a big selling point.

The skins are brought in from the processing companies and are pickled and tanned. Once they’ve gone through that process they’re shaped and dried, line drying if the weather is good as it often is in Napier!   The tanned skins are then ironed and polished to bring out the lustre of the fleece and get rid of any impurities picked up during the tanning process. Depending on the end use, the product is sewn and graded before being sent to market. The entire process is completed on site.

One popular line of products is footwear. The Ugg boot reintroduced customers to the value and quality of sheepskin lined slippers and boots. The boots have made a comeback in the last few years, reintroducing people to wool lined footwear that was guaranteed to keep you warm during a frosty winter. All the sheepskin lined footwear is hand made on site.

The biggest evolution in the business has been the ability to tan and process cow hides. The machinery and large processing power allows the company to do bulk loads keeping the price down for customers.

With the large range of New Zealand farm and game animals, Classic Sheepskins is also regularly tanning large amounts of all animal skins. These include goat, deer, tahr, hare, possum, rabbit, wallaby and alpaca. The company won’t tan pig skins and are also not keen on tanning pets.

Kieran says that with the correct preparation, trophy skins can be ideal features on walls, floors or across furniture. He says deer skins, especially red deer and fallow deer tan brilliantly and are a great way to show off an impressive trophy. More easily obtained goat skins have a wide range of colours and have also been surprisingly popular.

The main challenge is getting prospective customers to look after the skins as soon as they’ve been taken off the animal. This usually involves salting or freezing. Kieran says his staff are very good at their jobs but they can’t turn the proverbial pigs ear into a silk purse – no one can rescue a skin that’s not been handled correctly.