Fake Copies & Imports

Tommy Hill gently brushes down the thick tongue of leather before delicately inserting seven steel studs through it.

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 H******e of Scotland, which has five 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 Ł40 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 Ł40 also tells me it has not been made here because the raw material costs alone for a sporran would be around Ł25."

After Scott gave his verdict we approached H******* of Scotland again and manager D** Si**h 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 Ł40-60 to make but could sell for up to Ł150, but a dress sporran made in the Indian subcontinent could be sold at the wholesale price of Ł18 - 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.

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 Ł30 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?"

From http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1208732003 (Scotland on Sunday, 2 November 2003)

YOU'VE heard of coals to Newcastle. Now here's bagpipes to Edinburgh... via a remote town in the Punjab.

A cheeky businessman from Pakistan is opening a shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh selling his Aisan-made bagpipes and kilts.

Nadeem Bhatti runs a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, in remote eastern Pakistan, which is also the Aisan sub-continent's tartan capital.

Muslim Mr Bhatti, who often wears a sporran and kilt, said: "This will be a great opportunity to offer people cheaper kilts."

Now Mr Bhatti has taken it one step further by opening a shop right in the heart of the Scottish capital's tartan gift shop territory.

Having extended its range to include every bit of highland gear imaginable, Mr Bhatti sells up to 3,000 sets of bagpipes and 10,000 kilts a year, mostly over the internet, to Scotland, Canada and America. Bhatti's bagpipes are also much cheaper than those made in this country.

Pakistani bagpipes are mostly made of softer woods than the African hardwood favoured by Scottish pipe makers.

At around pounds 25 each, Bhatti's kilts also cost less than a tenth the average price of a quality Scottish kilt.

Sialkot is now a mini Scotland in Pakistan where tartan plaids adorn shop-windows strewn with sporrans, spats and Glengarry hats.

"We love kilts so much," says Mr Bhatti, speaking in his workshop where a dozen bagpipe-makers are employed.

But Paul Warren, director of the National Pipe Band of Scotland, warned that he had grave reservations about the Pakistan-made pipes.

BAGPIPE sales are booming on the internet but Pakistanis are pocketing the profits.

Their pipes are on sale for a third of the price of Scottish-made ones.

One firm based in Sialkot, close to the capital Islamabad, have seen sales jump 65 per cent since putting their goods on a website.

But last night, a Scottish pipe major said he could literally blow the cheap instruments apart.

Since he started selling over the internet three years ago, business has grown 65 per cent. Orders come mainly from bands in Australia and the United States.

Mr Bhatti plans to open a new factory and double his staff to 100.

But yesterday, the Pakistani bagpipes were dismissed by pipe major Bill Clezy, of Argyll Bagpipes and Kilts, in Dunbartonshire. He warned: ``I run two bands and I often have parents asking if they can buy these imported pipes for their children.

``I tell them not to waste their money. They are only suitable for tourists to pin on the wall.

``Scottish bagpipes are made from African blackwood. Pakistani pipes are made from a soft wood.

``The sound is different. And if I blew them for a week, they'd split.''

Then the Far East swung into the clothing market with its own range of kilts, while India unveiled plans to sell whisky to the home of the single malt.

Now the disputed state of Kashmir is planning another audacious commercial enterprise - to sell brown trout, introduced from Scotland, back to the Scots... Whit??

Scottish kilt makers are losing trade because customers are buying cut-price tartan - from Pakistan.

The threat to industry north of the border emerged as a pipe band proudly showed off its new uniforms, all manufactured in Asia.

Pipe major Barry Waldron expected to pay about Ł900 to kit out each member of the Rowan Pipe Band, based at Winston near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

But before he placed an order the band secretary, Jim Pearson, checked on the internet and found he could get the same items for Ł450 a head from a maker in Pakistan.

Mr Pearson, who is the line-up's pipe sergeant, sent off his own measurements and soon received a full outfit.

He turned up wearing it at the next rehearsal in Winston Village Hall.

As well as a Colquhoun tartan kilt, he wore a Glengarry hat, black cockfeather, hose tops, gaiters, dirk, sghian dubh, crossbelt, waist belt and plaid. All this impressed Mr Waldron, who immediately sent off an order for himself and five others, and the outfits arrived in time for them to make their debut in them at Bishop Auckland.

The pipe major said yesterday: "We ordered as many as we could afford, but when we have more cash in the kitty we will send for more, as they are such a tremendous bargain."

These 'tremendous bargains' have pushed out Scottish Kiltmakers Hugh MacPherson's of Edinburgh into closure after 70, yes, seven-zero years...

ONE of Scotland's top kilt makers is being forced out of business because the market has been flooded by cheap foreign imports.

Edinburgh store Hugh MacPherson, which has made our national dress for Madonna and Julia Roberts, is to close at Christmas after nearly 70 years.

And the owners sayimported kilts from Pakistan and the Far East are killing the home-grown industry.

Owner Jean MacPherson was hoping to sell the business when she retires at the end of the year.

But the 64-year-old has struggled to find a buyer for the Haymarket company.

She said: ``A few years ago selling the business would have been no trouble.

``But now there are lots of cheap kilts coming in from the Far East and Pakistan.

``They seem to be selling them in shops and on the internet as genuine garments.

``In truth, they are dreadful. I would not even call them kilts. And they are also importing sporrans and Highland jackets.''

Tourists to our beautiful country - Please be aware - if it doesn't have a sticker, label etc advising 'Made in Scotland', it likely isn't...Do you really want to take home a celtic cross, a kilt pin, a sporran etc made in the Far East or a genuine handcrafted Scottish gift to keep for years and pass down through the generations of your family?

When Irish tourists buy a shillelagh, or Welsh tourists buy a dragon or English tourists buy a Tudor Rose, where do they expect them to have been made??? When Scottish visitors buy a sghian dhu or a kilt or a sporran where do they expect it to have been made? Not the Far East, methinks...ect it to have been made?


	Tommy Hill gently brushes down the thick tongue of leather before delicately inserting seven steel studs through it. 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 H**e of Scotland, which has five 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 Ł40 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 Ł40 also tells me it has not been made here because the raw material costs alone for a sporran would be around Ł25." After Scott gave his verdict we approached H*** of Scotland again and manager D Sih 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 Ł40-60 to make but could sell for up to Ł150, but a dress sporran made in the Indian subcontinent could be sold at the wholesale price of Ł18 - 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. 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 Ł30 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?" From http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1208732003 (Scotland on Sunday, 2 November 2003) Sunday Mirror (London, England); 4/25/2004 Byline: JAMES ASTILL YOU'VE heard of coals to Newcastle. Now here's bagpipes to Edinburgh... via a remote town in the Punjab. A cheeky businessman from Pakistan is opening a shop on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh selling his Aisan-made bagpipes and kilts. Nadeem Bhatti runs a bagpipe factory in Sialkot, in remote eastern Pakistan, which is also the Aisan sub-continent's tartan capital. Muslim Mr Bhatti, who often wears a sporran and kilt, said: "This will be a great opportunity to offer people cheaper kilts." Now Mr Bhatti has taken it one step further by opening a shop right in the heart of the Scottish capital's tartan gift shop territory. Having extended its range to include every bit of highland gear imaginable, Mr Bhatti sells up to 3,000 sets of bagpipes and 10,000 kilts a year, mostly over the internet, to Scotland, Canada and America. Bhatti's bagpipes are also much cheaper than those made in this country. Pakistani bagpipes are mostly made of softer woods than the African hardwood favoured by Scottish pipe makers. At around pounds 25 each, Bhatti's kilts also cost less than a tenth the average price of a quality Scottish kilt. *Sialkot is now a mini Scotland in Pakistan where tartan plaids adorn shop-windows strewn with sporrans, spats and Glengarry hats.* *"We love kilts so much," says Mr Bhatti, speaking in his workshop where a dozen bagpipe-makers are employed.* *But Paul Warren, director of the National Pipe Band of Scotland, warned that he had grave reservations about the Pakistan-made pipes.* *He said the woods used in Pakistani pipes were porous.* *And that means they have a tendency to crack when being blown.* *BAGPIPE sales are booming on the internet but Pakistanis are pocketing the profits.* *Their pipes are on sale for a third of the price of Scottish-made ones.* *One firm based in Sialkot, close to the capital Islamabad, have seen sales jump 65 per cent since putting their goods on a website.* *But last night, a Scottish pipe major said he could literally blow the cheap instruments apart.* *They also turn out sporrans, glengarry hats and kilts.* *Since he started selling over the internet three years ago, business has grown 65 per cent. Orders come mainly from bands in Australia and the United States.* *Mr Bhatti plans to open a new factory and double his staff to 100.* *But yesterday, the Pakistani bagpipes were dismissed by pipe major Bill Clezy, of Argyll Bagpipes and Kilts, in Dunbartonshire. He warned: ``I run two bands and I* *often have parents asking if they can buy these imported pipes for their children.* *``I tell them not to waste their money. They are only suitable for tourists to pin on the wall.* *``Scottish bagpipes are made from African blackwood. Pakistani pipes are made from a soft wood.* *``The sound is different. And if I blew them for a week, they'd split.''* The Daily Mail (London, England); 1/3/2004 Byline: DAWN THOMPSON FiRST Pakistan was revealed as a prolific maker of bagpipes. Then the Far East swung into the clothing market with its own range of kilts, while India unveiled plans to sell whisky to the home of the single malt. Now the disputed state of Kashmir is planning another audacious commercial enterprise - to sell brown trout, introduced from Scotland, back to the Scots... Whit?? *The Journal (Newcastle, England); 10/7/2003* *Scottish kilt makers are losing trade because customers are buying cut-price tartan - from Pakistan.* *The threat to industry north of the border emerged as a pipe band proudly showed off its new uniforms, all manufactured in Asia.* *Pipe major Barry Waldron expected to pay about Ł900 to kit out each member of the Rowan Pipe Band, based at Winston near Barnard Castle, County Durham.* *But before he placed an order the band secretary, Jim Pearson, checked on the internet and found he could get the same items for Ł450 a head from a maker in* *Pakistan.* *Mr Pearson, who is the line-up's pipe sergeant, sent off his own measurements and soon received a full outfit.* *He turned up wearing it at the next rehearsal in Winston Village Hall.* *As well as a Colquhoun tartan kilt, he wore a Glengarry hat, black cockfeather, hose tops, gaiters, dirk, sghian dubh, crossbelt,* *waist belt and plaid. All this impressed Mr Waldron, who immediately sent off an order for himself and five others, and the outfits* *arrived in time for them to make their debut in them at Bishop Auckland.* *The pipe major said yesterday: "We ordered as many as we could afford, but when we have more cash in the kitty we will send for* *more, as they are such a tremendous bargain."* *These 'tremendous bargains' have pushed out Scottish Kiltmakers Hugh MacPherson's of Edinburgh into closure after 70, yes, seven-zero years...* *Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 10/31/2003* *Byline: JONATHAN LESSWARE* *ONE of Scotland's top kilt makers is being forced out of business because the market has been flooded by cheap foreign imports.* *Edinburgh store Hugh MacPherson, which has made our national dress for Madonna and Julia Roberts, is to close at Christmas after nearly 70 years.* *And the owners sayimported kilts from Pakistan and the Far East are killing the home-grown industry.* *Owner Jean MacPherson was hoping to sell the business when she retires at the end of the year.* *But the 64-year-old has struggled to find a buyer for the Haymarket company.* *She said: ``A few years ago selling the business would have been no trouble.* *``But now there are lots of cheap kilts coming in from the Far East and Pakistan.* *``They seem to be selling them in shops and on the internet as genuine garments.* *``In truth, they are dreadful. I would not even call them kilts. And they are also importing sporrans and Highland jackets.''* Tourists to our beautiful country - Please be aware - if it doesn't have a sticker, label etc advising 'Made in Scotland', it likely isn't...Do you really want to take home a celtic cross, a kilt pin, a sporran etc made in the Far East or a genuine handcrafted Scottish gift to keep for years and pass down through the generations of your family? *When Irish tourists buy a shillelagh, or Welsh tourists buy a dragon or English tourists buy a Tudor Rose,* *where do they expect them to have been made??? When Scottish visitors buy a sghian dhu or a kilt or a* *sporran where do they expect it to have been made? Not the Far East, methinks...ect it to have been* made?**

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