"Product Innovation is core to our business -
its one of the principal reasons we’re so successful in so many different product sectors"
Matthew Nicholls - Managing Director
Matthew Nicholls
Matthew Nicholls
Group Managing Director
Nicholls, a childhood enigma was the youngest winner of the South Wales Scientist of the year award at a mere 8 years old. Stints at Cardiff University and Christs College followed and when offered the post of Dean of Chemistry at Harvard, Nicholls turned it down to follow his lifelong dream of academia in the burgeoning world of leather science.
Born in South Wales, Matthew progressed through high school achieving 10 GCSE's before moving to Christ College Brecon to study for his A-Levels. After completing his exams he read computer science at University Wales Cardiff and gained a BSc with honours. The final stop on his educational tour was at the University College of Northampton where he completed an MSc in Leather Science from the British School of Leather Technology. After leaving the BSLT in 1998, he joined the Yarwood Group as Technical Manager and spent the first six months working in the Arzignano area of Italy to learn Italian and to broaden his experience, working in the Yarwood tannery.
In 2003 he was appointed to the Board as Technical and Operations Director where his intimate knowledge of leather science has been used to troubleshoot and manage the supply chain and to develop new products. In addition, his IT skills have given him a core knowledge of computer systems which has ensured that the Yarwood Group has been able to keep pace with the latest developments in technology as it has moves into the 21st century. In December 2007 as part of a management restructure, he was appointed to the role of Group Managing Director with the task of leading the Group in its expansion into new more technically demanding markets.