Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality. Show all posts

Friday, 17 October 2008

Verticle is good

We're an unusual company in lots of ways but one of the things I believe makes us unusually great is the fact that, at a time when most brands sub-contract, here in Kenya we're vertically integrated from manufacture right through to retail, with shops here at our Lenana head office and across Nairobi at Village Market.

So where many businesses spend fortunes on research (often to tell them stuff they already know), I can walk three steps out of my office and talk directly to the people who love our brand and buy our product. One of the things that's come out of these conversations is a clear demand for product that has all the 'safari-grade' build quality of our current bags, but more rugged and (ideally) lower cost - the kind of thing you're more than happy to chuck in the hold of a plane, or the back of a Land Rover. And of course because we make them ourselves we can test and sample, test and sample, in low quantities until we get things just right.

And here's the result: a set of four nice, simple and tough as hell, canvas & webbing bags that will retail here in Kenya for a lot less than our canvas & leather collection.


Four sizes ranging from "popping down the gym" to "crossing the Kalahari".


Military-grade webbing shoulder strap, and front zipped pocket.


Useful push pocket between straps on reverse.


Grab handles for hurling with ease.

Wednesday, 15 October 2008

To the tannery

Paul, John (Senior Cutter) and I went on a buying trip to the tannery north of Nairobi where we source all our leather. Nairobi traffic and tannery opening hours conspired to have us stop for a quick bite in Limuru (John on left, Paul on right), and then on to the tannery. Each of our hides is hand selected at source and here you can see John and Paul checking camel hides for quality and consistency.

Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Production Planning

Had our weekly production planning meeting this morning at Jamhuri. In the picture (left to right) you can see Lavender (who looks after one-off projects and seat covers), Paul (Purchasing Manager), Kioko (Quality Control), Moshi (Stores) and Dickie (Factory Manager). Dickie is talking through some detail on a one-off adaptation of our Safari Cooler for a client: as well as our standard international range we have a reputation for producing excellent one-off bags and accessories for clients locally.>