Ientify and describe the product offered by Billy Tannery, what good and/or service that Billy Tannery is producing?

'Circular economy': the tannery making leather from billy goats

Jack Millington walks past two huge industrial-style wooden tanning drums, through a door into the well-insulated drying room. Here, at 35C, amid the whirring of the dehumidifier and one small electric heater, hides (animal skins) from billy goats are stretched out on racks to dry.

Strong yet silky soft to touch, the beauty of the hides lies in the details - from the natural texture of the grain to the spine marks visible down the centre of each pale brown goatskin. "Every hide is different - these patterns are almost like a fingerprint and that's exciting to see for the first time as they dry," says Millington, 31.

Millington's micro-tannery near Market Harborough in the Midlands is the final step in making full use of the thousands of male or "billy" goat that would otherwise be killed at birth.

Although still dwarfed in size by the dairy cow sector, the UK's commercial goat-milking herd now numbers around 50,000 animals. The controversy around the killing of male dairy calves at birth has prompted efforts to find markets for the animals. But far less attention has been paid to the male billy goats being killed soon after birth. The Goat Veterinary Society estimates around 3,000 billy goat kids are slaughtered every year because they are unwanted, with only milk-producing females deemed useful.

One of the few outlets for billies in the UK is goat meat distributor Cabrito, which buys goat meat from dairy farms that keep and rear their billies until around seven months old before slaughter.

But before Millington's tannery, there had been no outlet for the hides, with goatskins considered a biohazard by abattoirs and mostly incinerated.

Millington came into the industry by accident. Previously working in advertising, he had been trying to help his dairy farmer dad to find a market for his goat meat when he discovered the masses of goatskins being discarded.

Unable to find a facility that could process smaller, less sought-after goatskins, Millington enlisted experts at the University of Northampton to develop a bespoke tanning recipe using natural bark extracts, then set about creating his own purpose-built micro-tannery. The tanning process, which takes up to two weeks, starts when the raw hides arrive from the slaughterhouse. They are covered in salt to preserve the skins and draw out moisture, then the traditional "beamhouse operation" begins. Initially, lime powder is added to a small batch of 70 or so skins in the first drum which spins intermittently to remove the hair and plump the skin up into a thick jelly-like material. Powdered enzyme is then added to break down proteins in the skin and once in the second drum, hides are pickled with rock salt and acid solution. Finally, non-toxic mimosa bark tannins are added to colour the leather overnight. Once tanned, skins are dyed and finished at a local family-run leather finishing company and handcrafted into luxury bags, wallets, made-to-order shoes and bespoke commissions such as the aprons for staff at SILO, London's zero waste restaurant.

While most leather companies won't mention that their fabric comes from livestock, Millington is totally open about the connection between leather and the food industry. All of the billies ultimately used by the tannery come from farms supplying Cheshire-based Delamere Dairy, which processes a third of the UK's goat milk. "The leather industry is so misunderstood. People don't think about where leather comes from, but it's a natural by-product. The connection between the meat and dairy system and the leather industry has been forgotten, but they are inextricably linked," says Millington, who launched Billy Tannery three years ago and now sources all his hides from Cabrito. "We're repurposing a bi-product that comes from an inherently wasteful food system to make a material that's biodegradable, natural and beautiful," he adds. "It doesn't d anyone any favours to talk about the males in the dairy system, it's not in the farmers' interests, retailers', or consumers' interest to dig that much," explains Cabrito's founder James Whetlor.

"But if you're a vegetarian who eats goat's cheese, you're directly contributing to a system that euthanises animals at birth, so if you care about the circular economy, the sustainability of industries and reducing the impact of your food on the planet, you should be eating goat meat," he says. Sending the hides to Millington's tannery is the "last piece of the puzzle", says Whetlor, and ends another unnecessary waste in the goat dairy system. "200 years ago no one would have dreamt of knocking a perfectly healthy animal on the head at birth, and 100 years ago no one would have dreamt of throwing these hides away. Small artisan production has never had the built-in waste and obsolescence which is part of the modern-day food system," he says.

(Source: Turns, 2020)

Reference

Case Study - II

Bank of England cuts interest rates to all-time low of 0.1%

Rishi Sunak will reveal plans to subsidise workers' wages to prevent hundreds of thousands of lay-offs on Friday as the Treasury comes under pressure to match the new Bank of England measures to limit the economic fallout from Covid-19.

Amid warnings from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) that time is running out to save jobs from being axed, the chancellor is understood to be working on the final details of the scheme, including how many workers should be covered, how long it should last for and how it should be delivered.

Sunak met the leaders of the TUC, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Confederation of British Industry as the bank cut interest rates to 0.1%, their lowest ever level, and launched a fresh 200bn money creation scheme.

The bank cut interest rates to an all-time low and increased its quantitative easing (a way of injecting new money to stimulate the economy) stimulus package following further panic in financial markets over the handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Bank made the decision at a special meeting of its rate-setting monetary policy committee on Thursday. It will also buy an additional 200bn of UK government and corporate bonds under a Quantitative Easing money-printing programme, designed to hold down the cost of borrowing and pump cash into the economy.

The Monetary Policy Committee at a special meeting on 19 March voted to cut bank rate to 0.1% and increase its holdings of UK government and corporate bonds by 200 billion.

It comes a week after the Bank cut rates from 0.75% to 0.25% to address the coronavirus crisis and adds to the pressure on Sunak to put forward further measures to prevent mass job lay-offs.

The chancellor is trying to finalise the details of a plan that would allow employers to put workers on part-time hours or lay them off without them losing all their income.

But plans to run a new compensation scheme through the computer systems at HMRC and the Department of Work and Pensions have faltered after it became clear the scale of the changes breached the capacity of both government departments.

The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, said the central bank moved quickly to calm markets spooked by the growing number of deaths from Covid-19 and concerns that the world's major economies are likely to suffer the steepest falls in GDP since the 2008 financial crash.

Rumours that London would be forced into complete lockdown imminently had also played a part in panicking financial markets. "You could see that reflected in the rising value of the dollar, in bond yields and in bond spreads," Bailey said.

"The obvious increase in the pace and severity of Covid-19, which has built during the week, was something we had to assess and respond to, we can't wait for the hard economic data before we act," he added.

Bailey said he would use the extra 200bn of quantitative easing funding to act in the markets promptly, adding that all central banks were moving in the same direction. "I talk to central bank governors most days and while we make decisions with reference to our own mandates, it is not a surprise that we all are coming to the same conclusion over what to do."

Central bank officials are known to be nervous about a collapse in business and consumer confidence after a spike in the number of virus cases and deaths in the UK.

Speculation that ministers are close to announcing further spending commitments to underwrite workers' incomes, with vast extra borrowing needed to fund it, is also believed to be behind the move.

The pound rose in value after the announcement, having endured its fifth worst day of the century against the US dollar before falling back to 1.16 against the US dollar. Only 10 days ago sterling was valued at $1.30. The pound was also up 2.4% against the euro at (EURO)1.0887.

Britain's blue chip share index, the FTSE 100 leapt almost 200 points following the move to close up 1.4% at 5,152. Continental stock markets followed the upswing with the German Dax closing up 2% while the French CAC rallied 2.7%.

Oil prices also recovered, adding more than $3 a barrel or 12.5% to the price of Brent crude, which reached $30 per barrel.

The Bank of England move follows the creation of a (EURO)750bn (637bn) emergency fund by the European Central Bank to extend its bond buying programme and shore up sovereign and corporate debt eurozone.

Bailey said that without the Bank of England's rate cut and stimulus package it was likely the volatility seen in markets over recent days would have worsened.

Replying to suggestions that the central bank had used all its ammunition to support the economy, he said: "We are not done. The Bank of England will do what the public needs in the days and weeks ahead."

Analysts at Japanese investment bank Nomura said the cut in interest rates and boost to quantitative easing was "highly unlikely to prevent a sizeable hit to [UK] Gross Domestic Product this year", but they added "there can be no question that the monetary and fiscal authorities are throwing everything they can at this problem to support firms and households, cushion demand as much as is reasonably possible, and to reduce the long-term hit to supply".

Karen Ward, a senior analyst at JP Morgan Asset Management, and a former Treasury adviser, said: "It is the additional quantitative easing in today's Bank of England package that will have the most significant impact, both in terms of the market reaction but also a solution to the economic challenges presented by Covid-19.

Ward added: "The support to the economy and health system will require vastly higher government borrowing. The central bank showing willing to buy government debt will ensure the market can absorb this additional issuance without undue stress".