History
Wynand and Petro Hart bought the tannery in 1996 and named it Leather from Hart.The tannery was built in 1878 by a German resident, Mr Hogh, and he named it Sutherlands Tannery.
During WWII it was nationalised and taken over by Imperial Cold Storage. They supplied boots and regalia to soldiers during the war.
Wynand and Petro Hart bought the tannery in 1996 and named it Leather from Hart.
The Hart’s are still actively involved in the day to day running of the tannery.
We pride ourselves on attention to detail and manufacturing some of the finest artisanal and top-grade leathers, focusing on accentuating the natural characteristics of the leather.
The devastating fire in 2022
On Saturday 27 August 2022, a fire broke out in the VEG plant finishing department. The double story building was built almost entirely out of origan pine, and it took only 25 minutes for the fire to destroy the entire VEG plant. Absolutely nothing from the factory could be saved.
On Monday morning the owner gathered the team, and a plan was put in place to start up production in the old Sutherlands Tannery building. Within a couple of days, we were able to start manufacturing again and today we are running at full capacity. We had amazing support from our customers and suppliers.
We are still in the process of rebuilding, but we now have a new chemical store which has been built.
