paper republic have shown that it’s possible to build a successful business making vegetable-tanned leather products, by hand, in Europe.
Jérôme Bacquias – paper republic’s founder and CEO – explains how building slowly, rather than ‘failing fast’, has led to a rebirth in European handmade-leather production.
Companies making leather products inhouse by hand are now largely extinct in Europe. What makes paper republic’s way of working so rare?
We produce in house; we have our own workshops here in central Vienna, where we pick, punch, cut, stitch, polish, package and send our leather journals, portfolios and other accessories to people all over the world.
Almost all other companies who make leather products in Europe use chrome-tanned leather, or fully outsource their production to lower-cost countries. It’s very rare for brands to use European vegetable-tanned leather and produce their products in their own European workshops.
Why only vegetable-tanned leather?
Two hundred years ago, all leather was vegetable-tanned. Back then, using natural extracts from plants and minerals was the only way to do it. Then chrome tanning was invented. It’s a much quicker process so it became the dominant way of tanning leather because tanning faster, meant tanning cheaper.
But the price is paid by the environment and tannery workers instead. Waste chromium from the process often ends up in local soils and waterways, harming the ecosystem, and harming humans who rely on that ecosystem. It’s a problem that is generally swept under the rug and not talked about by big leather producing labels.
Leather is a great product. It’s sustainable, beautiful and long lasting, but I didn’t want to use chrome-tanned leather and add to the problems. That’s why all paper republic products use vegetable-tanned leather. It takes longer – weeks rather than hours – and therefore costs more. But it doesn’t harm the environment or people, it smells wonderful, and it preserves small scale, artisanal tanneries.
Paper republic have successfully scaled a handmade, artisanal product, reaching hundreds of thousands of people around the world. How?
We had to innovate. We blended modern technology with handmade production to make an exceptional product but also a viable business. For example, we recently installed a new leather-pattern cutter. It’s a very advanced machine which scans each hide and calculates how to maximise the cutting to minimise waste.
Another example is our incredible new tool: l'atelier live - the world's first 3D leather journal customiser. It allows you to design a completely unique journal from over a million possibilities, playing with different options and seeing your design visualised in 3D every step of the way. We then make your design by hand in our Vienna workshop. It's a genuine gamechanger; something completely new to our industry.
It’s this combination of smart technology and our hands-on approach where we continue to stitch, glue, and cut that has enabled us to compete with mass-market industrial leather products, often made outside of Europe, where environmental standards and employee welfare conditions may be much lower.
Why is producing in-house so important to paper republic?
We’re a completely vertically integrated company, and that's absolutely unique in the leather business. We literally do everything in-house ourselves; designing, making, marketing, shipping. So we own the production chain and keep the value of the product within our company.
This has enabled us to reinvest in the production, in the right people and in developing our skills and systems. We source leather and paper from long-standing partners in Europe who have the same ethical and environmental standards as us.
Unlike many other producers, we don’t compromise on standards or ethics to increase profits. We have remained true to our original mission, and just kept doing this consistently over years and years.
Our popularity didn't happen overnight. It's taken more than a decade. But by sticking to our principals, and just making great products in a sustainable, ethical way, we have slowly built a significant following.
Why do you think paper republic journals have become so popular?
It’s a combination of the quality, longevity, beauty and sustainability. Our journals are built for life. We hope they become family heirlooms. We call them ‘lifetime companions’ and they really are. Many people carry their grand voyageurs with them every day; they bare the dreams, hopes, scratches and scars of life, just like their owners.
People also love the flexibility of the paper republic system. You can mix and match the covers, the different paper refills, even the ribbons and accessories. People love to tailor their journal to their needs, whether that’s for writing a dairy, doodling, making to-do lists, watercolour painting or crochet patterns, all the different ways people are using them are really inspiring for us to see.
paper republic has grown from one person (you!) to a company of over 60, and we’re still hiring. What are the challenges of scaling a business?
I think it's way easier to be a team of sixty than to be alone. When you’re a one-man band you must do everything yourself. You’re the Chief Financial Officer, IT Support, Head of Marketing, Director of HR, a leather making executive, plus the salesman. So there are far more challenges of being one or two people, compared to sixty. As we grew, things actually got easier.
A bigger challenge for all businesses, is finding product market fit. It’s taken us a long time to evolve our leather journals to suit our market: we had to find the right size, the right colours, the right price, the right boxes, the right way to sell, to ship, to market.
It’s taken almost a decade to really get there. The first eight or so years we were just trying many different approaches, again and again. And everything boils down to your team. You must find the right people that have the mindset, skills and passion to scale the business with you. And getting the right people also means avoiding the wrong people.
I spend so much time thinking about the structure of company; how people can evolve and grow so they continue to learn, be challenged, and develop their careers with us. That’s almost half of my job now, just taking care of the people, listening to them, making sure we have a work culture that people enjoy and therefore do their best work.
Advice for other craft, artisan businesses, looking to scale?
The typical Silicon Valley advice revolves around ‘failing fast’. But we did the opposite. We got successful slowly. We never had outside investment; we are completely self-funded.
Growth is obviously necessary to reach bigger things, for example, hiring more people, and expanding your product line. But when you’re using your own money, every euro is so important. Many start-ups have investor money flung at them, are under pressure to grow, make big gambles, and then three years later, the company is dead.
At paper republic, we’ve built our business slowly and organically, remaining true to our core principles. We’ve shown it’s possible to build a sustainable, ethical business in Europe, in an industry that’s been almost completely outsourced to cheap-labour countries with environmentally damaging factories.
And that’s something I am very proud of.