"We make leather do things it has never done before, blending together traditional skills and new technologies
enables us to create superior materials that break new ground;lighter, more comfortable, more durable"
Matthew Nicholls - Managing Director
Premium service and quality
The Yarwood company, founded by Peter Yarwood, began life as specialists in leather
in London. Success came quickly and we moved to West Yorkshire soon afterwards as
the business began a rapid rise in growth rate.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, we were a key player in Lancashire's growing furniture
manufacturing business, sourcing upholstery leather for the county's biggest names.
But bigger things lay ahead. In 1989 John Nicholls, now our CEO, joined us as Sales
Director, spearheading our ambitious growth plans. We quickly became the largest
supplier of leather to the UK furniture trade, servicing craftsmen all across Britain
and meeting the high-volume demands of the Christie Tyler Group.
We continued to grow through the 1990s, gaining an unassailable position as market
leader in the UK trade arena. We reached our peak in the year 2000, when we enjoyed
annual sales approaching £30 million. At that point we were the largest supplier
in Christie Tyler's history.
Recent years have seen a change in direction with major investment in new state-of-the-art
facilities in Leeds. We became the first UK leather supplier to achieve ISO9000:2000
and, in keeping with our concentration on new product development, we gained ISO/IEC
17025 accreditation for our on-site testing laboratory from UKAS.
Today, the UK furniture industry is facing huge competition from Far Eastern suppliers.
But we have refocused our experience and innovative talents to supply new markets,
giving future scope to Britain's leather industry. We have seen huge growth in supply
to the Marine, Automotive and Aviation industries.
