Tony Mossop died on September 23, 2005, aged 63, of complications following a stroke earlier in the year. He had a life-long association with Mossop Leathers (later Mossop-Western). He served the company in various capacities – as owner, managing director and chairman of the board of directors. Over the years he made an immeasurable contribution towards the success of the company. Even after his retirement Tony continued his close relationship and the company say: ‘Tony will be deeply missed as a colleague and a good friend.’
In early 2001, Tony Mossop wrote to Sam Setter saying: ‘I have been a tanner for forty years – my great great grandfather was one too, when he came to South Africa to carry on his family trade from Cumbria in 1842. In April this year I am due to take over the presidency of the International Council of Tanners (ICT). When I started attending council meetings of this organisation some eight or nine years ago (simply because nobody from my country seemed interested enough to give up a day before or after a major leather fair to do so), I was impressed and stimulated by the buzz and the pretty good attendance at these gatherings. Names like Koppany, Segerdahl and others graced the meetings with their presence. Since then, numbers have dropped, although actual country membership has remained pretty stable.
‘People just don’t come to meetings – they perceive no immediate threats dire enough to warrant a discussion, even for a day! In other words, country associations remain members (the fees are quite low), but no one pitches up to the meeting (this despite environmental, eco-labelling, restrictive trading, contract disputes…..). And now animal rights!
‘It appears to me that the activities of these people could just be the single most serious threat to our industry in the next few years. What is more significant, is that it threatens tanners in developed countries right the way down to rural pit-diggers in darkest Africa. Some issues tend to affect certain areas more than others, while others, such as free trade in raw materials, will never be sorted out, as vested interests and politics are too deeply rooted.’
In March 2001, at the annual meeting of the ICT in Hong Kong, he said: ‘When I attended one of my first ICT meetings some years ago there was a crisis afoot – BSE had been detected in the UK, and the resulting panic seemed to draw a buzzing and concerned audience to the meeting to listen to Drs Ken Alexander and Robert Sykes as they presented the picture of a sorely tried UK industry battling a problem that has simply refused to go away. It seems our members needed a catastrophe to encourage attendance. If so, where is everyone today?
‘We have been through a series of cataclysmic events in our trade since then – the Russian/Turkish market crash and attendant commercial problems, low prices leading to stratospheric prices in just a few months, poor demand in certain sectors such as footwear, not to mention the luxury Asian markets, and now foot and mouth disease seemingly running wild like a rash through herds in several continents.
‘And to top it all, we have a group of ill-informed yet highly focused and dangerous folk trying to kill our industry because they think we are responsible for the deaths of the animals whose hides and skins we process into such a beautiful and useful product. My message to this meeting and to the world’s leather industry, which we do our best to represent, is this: perhaps ICT has been too low-key, too shy and retiring. We are the World Parliament of Tanners. We need more member countries, at a time of great turmoil in the leather industry, and at a time when everyone tends to ‘look inwards’.
‘Despite the globalisation of our industry this short-sighted selfish tendency needs to be reversed. This is not an easy task: we are an under-funded and under-resourced organisation, seen by some to be too Eurocentric.
‘China is waiting to host an ICT Council meeting – and has also offered a venue for a future IULTCS congress. There is a resource of potential member countries out there which we need to tap, and I ask you to promote the concept of our council as THE forum which MUST be supported if we tanners are to survive against bunny-huggers, over-motivated environmental lawyers, customers who create ridiculous specifications, and villains who lurk out there trying to rip us off.
‘As our customers become more demanding, even paranoid, as governments and commissions raise the bar on environmental and commercial issues, and as trade in raw material and finished products seems to be subject to more shady practice and more restrictions by the month, surely there is a significant role for our council to play in this potential minefield.’
Due to SARS, the 2003 ICT meeting was not held until the time of the Bologna fair in late October. Tony retired, having completed his two year term of office. In his parting speech he had this to say: ‘We are in a consumer-led business: our wonderful product is used in many of the most desirable and practical articles required by mankind, from motor vehicles to fine garments, from luggage to footwear. So when people feel less rich than they did last month or last year, their perception of their needs changes. That’s what is happening right now, and many of us are hurting.
‘At this time of difficulty and challenge, it is all the more important that we take the opportunity to exchange information and ideas about the issues affecting our businesses. While ICT does not have a single, common legislative focus in the way that some of your national and regional associations do, I think that we all face the same core problems:
* the state of the supply markets and finished goods trades
* environmental issues, consumer legislation and customers’ requirements
* the image and perception of the industry
* raw material price volatility, availability and quality, along with the impact of animal diseases
* globalisation and the consequent shifts in capacity and markets
‘Thank goodness BSE and FMD are behind us, though leaving a legacy of caution and suspicion which will take years to disperse. But the ramifications of September 11 and associated political consequences are continuing to have an impact on business confidence, future strategy and investment.
‘When ICT was formed decades ago, our industry was centred in what is now known as the developed world and relied heavily on supplies of raw material from countries with less evolved leather processing industries. All this has changed and organisations like Cotance have been forced into reactive mode in order to protect the interests of their members in an environment where developing economies are increasingly attempting to upgrade their economies to the same levels as the countries represented by Cotance, often by restricting exports of raw material and protecting their home industries.
‘Cotance has been critical of ICT’s perceived inability to prescribe to our members how their governments should handle issues relating to raw material strategy and leather supply in their countries. Cotance has indicated that its members might in future be unwilling to sit at the same table with representatives of countries not adhering to our Council’s doctrines of free trade.
‘Maybe the fact that our proposed incoming president and vice president represent Japan and Brazil, two countries regarded by Cotance to be protectionist, has something to do with this. With respect: is it not always better to be around the table negotiating than to be outside the room reacting?
‘I am most conscious of the honour of having served as president of ICT for the past two and a half years. I regret that I have been able to contribute very little to the development of our council during this period – our attentions seem to have been ‘hi-jacked’ elsewhere by more pressing matters such as global politics and our needs simply to survive. But I regard myself as someone from the ‘old school’ in terms of my respect and hopes for this body. I ask my successors to give serious thought to expanding our activities and issues in which ICT can and must stay involved. The serious threat to the European chemical industry, as well as the environmental statutes now being enforced in California are, plainly put, scary for industries such as ours.
‘We need to lobby actively through our secretariat and your individual national associations, to ensure that we as tanners do not get legislated out of existence. And our members from countries not yet feeling the pressure of environmental and so-called ethical sentiments – learn from those who have this experience, and let’s co-operate in any way we can to fight stupid and ill-informed laws formulated by blinkered and often ignorant officials.’
Editor’s note: Tony may have retired but he never left the industry. He was one of the best ambassadors the trade has ever had. He was outgoing, generous and hospitable and was always prepared to share his opinions which were well worth listening to. I met him many times over the years, in Hong Kong, in South Africa and elsewhere and enjoyed his sense of fun as well as his wide knowledge of the leather industry. Because I believe that he had things of importance to impart I am providing him with one last soapbox so we can hear what he had to say just one more time.
