Stiched up by foreign sporrans

The smell of animal hide and oil hangs in the air of the Edinburgh workshop where Hill and 17 other skilled craftsmen ply their centuries-old trade.

Since leaving school 19 years ago, 35-year-old Hill has dedicated his working life to the sporranmaking trade and now works for William Scott and Son, the country’s biggest manufacturer of the traditional Scots purse.

But despite the global popularity of Highland wear and the proliferation of rental shops offering outfits of every kind, Hill’s job is under threat.

For retailers in Scotland are turning their back on skilled craftsmen like him and buying sporrans from manufacturers in India and Pakistan, leading to a massive fall in orders for the Edinburgh factory and leaving up to a quarter of the workforce facing the dole.

Economics has no respect for tradition and national borders, and so the fact that a factory 5,000 miles away in Pakistan’s Sialkot and Vehari districts can produce a sporran for a fraction of what it costs here simply means a drop in orders for William Scott and Son.

But a Scotland on Sunday investigation has revealed that it is not just that tourists and Scots alike are blithely buying these products, reasonably believing them to be Scottish, but that shoppers are actually being actively misled about their origin.

During our investigation one high street retailer gave us the wrong information about where his sporrans were made, and questions were raised about the origin of products on other stores on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

Two staff at Heritage of Scotland, which has two stores on the Royal Mile, gave reassurances that the sporran we were buying was Scots-made.

But this was not the case. Malcolm Scott, owner of William Scott and Son, who has 30 years’ experience in the industry, instantly recognised the 40 sporran as one that had been imported.

"The strap is about the third of the size it should be. There is no chance that has been made in Scotland. I have never seen a chain like this over here," he said.

"The very fact that it is being sold for 40 also tells me it has not been made here because the raw material costs alone for a sporran would be around 25."

After Scott gave his verdict we approached Heritage of Scotland again and manager Dil Singh admitted the item had not come from Scotland, but said the two assistants who had guaranteed its origin had made a mistake.

"We do have items that are made in Scotland and cheaper ones that are made abroad so that people can have a choice of prices," he said. "This is a genuine mistake and we will make sure our staff are trained better."

The boom in traditional Scots products manufactured abroad began earlier this year, but fears have been raised about whether the savings shops are making by buying them are being passed on to the customer.

Hill had believed his traditional craft was among the safest in the country but his employers are anticipating a massive drop in their annual output of 5,000 sporrans.

"When I first started I thought it couldn’t be a bad trade because it had been going for years and years.

"Now things are pretty grim. We are making these the way they should be. It takes a long time to train and the quality of what is being brought in is no where near our standards.

His colleague Vallance Smith, who has been with the firm 22 years, added: "It has been a worry here for the last while. Nobody knows if things will pick up. It just seems crazy that people can buy things in Scotland thinking they are Scottish but they are being made thousands of miles away."

Requiring at least five years to learn their specialised trade, there are less than 40 individual sporranmakers in Scotland. Nearly half of these craftsmen and women work at the family-owned Edinburgh business, which has been at its Causewayside premises since 1937.

Scott said poor-quality materials and less stringent production processes meant the public were being conned into buying inferior products.

"They are not saying whether it was made in this country. You see all the high street shops with tartan coming out of the doors but the public have absolutely no idea about the amount of stuff being brought into the UK."

A traditionally-made leather sporran in dress style costs about 40-60 to make but could sell for up to 150, but a dress sporran made in the Indian subcontinent could be sold at the wholesale price of 18 - leaving the retailer to decide the mark-up.

Scott claimed the market had been distorted by firms importing large numbers of offshore sporrans, in some cases up to 500 at a time, meaning many retailers were no longer doing business with traditional craftsmen.

"This has only really taken off in the last six months. A lot of our bigger customers are not buying from us anymore. The situation is that I’m having to let go of some of my staff. The skills that we have are not something that can be replaced. If the industry in Scotland disappears then it won’t be able to come back again."

Thought to have originated in the 16th century, the sporran was a purse originally made for carrying food such as oats. It can be made from a variety of pelts and hides including leather, sealskin, mink, racoon, rabbit or pigskin in hundreds of different styles.

Howie Nicholsby, marketing manager from Geoffrey (Tailor) Kiltmakers, whose Edinburgh firm had fitted out stars such as Robbie Williams, said his store had briefly flirted with offshore sporrans but had found they had quality problems.

He said: "We got a few four or five months ago but decided not to reorder them. There are nasty, poor-quality goods out there.

"I have heard rumours of a guy being employed to take off ‘made in Taiwan’ labels. I would always suggest that people go to two or three shops before they buy a Highland outfit so they have an idea of what quality they are buying."

But it is not just sporrans which are being imported into Scotland. Concerns are even being raised about the future of the kilt, the symbol of Scottish national dress.

The Kiltmakers Association of Scotland, which represents some of the country's 150 kiltmakers, said it had received several complaints from its members about the rise in imported products which were passed off to customers as Scots-made.

And an increasing number of kilt jackets, such as the famous Bonnie Prince Charlie and Montrose jackets, are being made in eastern Europe and North Africa.

Carol Mathieson, owner of Hamilton jacketmakers TJ Mathews, said more and more retailers were stocking products made in Croatia, Poland and Morocco.

"It is not a level playing field. They are not paying their workers a fair wage and they can undercut us very heavily. While they are getting paid 30 a month, I’m paying my staff that in a day."

Plans are afoot to fight back against imported Scots goods. Mathieson said traditional garment industries were seeking to lobby Scottish Executive ministers and raise public awareness about imported goods.

"We have been talking about getting together and forming an industry association to change the situation. I don’t mind competing with other companies but it’s not a fair situation. The government must be able to impose some kind of import tax.

"I think if more people knew that what they were buying wasn’t Scottish then we wouldn’t have this problem."

Despite such plans, the future remains uncertain for Tommy Hill and his colleagues.

Continuing to work his hard-earned at the Edinburgh workshop remains the only option at the moment.

"We can make something like 200 different types of sporrans here. All that knowledge will be gone if things keep going this way.

"It will be a bit sad if it gets to the point where we can’t keep going. But what can you do?"