Booth Group
Booth Companies and Brand Names
Bulleys Tanneries Ltd (Thika & Kahawa factories)
New Zealand Light Leather
Great Northern Tannery
Turney Bros
Ulster Leather & Atlantic Tanning bought from UCT ltd
Wades
Pavlova Leather Company
Kent and Stevens
Surpass Leather
Tombooth
Booth Overseas
Booth England
OFRO
Booth Steamship Line
Booths & Dutch Twentsche Overzee Handel Maatshappij
ET Holden ltd (Jedburgh)
Nuneaton Leather Co
Booth Australia
Brands
| ABC | ||
| Daisy Kids | Ceara goat with Dongola Tannage to make an imitation kid | 1880 |
| Dongola | 1877 | |
| Ideal | Enamelled leather to look like Patent (by Wolff) | 1898 |
| Eureka | ||
| Surpass | A chrome tanned black glazed kid (on Ceara goat) | 1890 |
| Ajmal Camel | A chrome tanned East African or Bactrian aniline printed camel skin | Melrose, circa 1966 |
| Ngombe | As above but on East African bovine crust | 1975? |
| Cordovan | High glazed horse butt shells for American golf shoes | 1960s |
| Drysoft | Hi Tech chamois (really a Pittards brand) | 1990s |
Time Line for the Booth Group
1812-1815
Napoleonic War of 1812. Commodity prices fell and stayed low for a long time
1850
Alfred apprenticed to Lamport and Holt, well-known Liverpool merchant house
1850s
Liverpool merchants began to replace sailing ships with small steam ones
1857
Alfred Booth went to New York. Worked for Liverpool merchants Rathbone & Co
1859-1862
Bad harvests in UK lead to food imports from US through to 65
1860
Elder Mr Booth died
1860
Walden (USA) and Alfred Booth (Liverpool, UK) founded company to import light leather from UK to USA, 57 Broad Street, New York
1861-1865
US Civil War
1863
Walden becomes incapacitated and enters mental hospital.
Walden and Booth dissolved.
Alfred Booth and Company, Liverpool and Booth and Company, New York established. This New Booth partnership formed, shipping light leather to US. Two products: Sumac tanned sheep from Bermondsey for shoe uppers, and pickled grains and fleshes from Turneys of Trent Bridge, Boots of Leicester, and Johnston at Bootle
1863
Issue of confederate loan
1863
Booths open office in Liverpool 5 India Buildings
1864
Decided to enter the steamship business. Plan to sail to North Brazil ports, Ceará, Maranham, and Para (now called Fortaleza, Sâo Luiz, and Belem): return cargoes would be cotton, sugar and coffee. Plus a mail contract if possible. The construction of two steamships, the Augustine and the Jerome was planned
1865
Booth US trade had a good year
1865
Turneys agreed to ship to US on consignment
1865
Contracts placed for first 2 Booth ships, Augustine launched
1866
Feb 15th first Augustine voyage to Brazil Voyage lost £3000 but obtained £10,000 annual contract for mail from the Brazilians
1867
Brazil/Paraguay War ends
1867
Alfred Booth married Lydia Butler
1860-1890
US population doubled
1869-1871
Alfred Booth stayed in the US
1870
Franco-Prussian war breaks out
1870
Charles married Mary Macaulay
1870
Office opened in Boston to build on success of Roan business (pickled foreign sheepskins) 141 Purchase Street, Boston. Mr Gaenslen went to be manager
1877
Office opened in London to deal with French and Belgian sheep suppliers: Fenchurch Street
1877
Kent and Stevens's tannery in Gloversville hit by Stevens fraud. Booths owed $70,000. Booths pay off creditors and back James Kent. James Kent is the leather scientist who developed fatliquoring and the Dongola tannage
1879
Problem of unsold stocks of roans leads to opening of showroom in New York, Frankfurt Street
1879
Dongola tannage successful and Booths began buying dried goat and kangaroo skins for it
1879
Liverpool offices moved From 5 India Buildings to 14 Castle Street
1880
Launch of Daisy Kid Ceará goat tanned with Dongola Tannage to make an imitation kid
1880
Augustus Schultz started work with Julius Kuttner in Booth Gloversville on perfecting chrome tanning. Met on train.
1881
Booth Steamship Co Ltd formally incorporated, began looking at Brazil-New York Trade
1882
Nuneaton Leather Co founded when Booths needed to make something out of the roans
1884
Augustus Schultz had two chrome tanning patents issued
1886
James Kent died
1887
Alfred Booth retired
1889
Schultz' two chrome patents passed to Franco-American company Messrs Blumenthal Blumenthal then passed patents to Marcus Beebe and R.Foederer & Co in Philadelphia. Philadelphia tanners began working widely in chrome
1890
First serious marketing of chrome tanned leather under the brand name "Surpass" by Booth and Company in a joint venture with J.P.Mathieu of Philadelphia USA. (A small production under the name "Vici" kid did precede it, in which Booths not involved)
1893
Formation of United States Leather Company, the largest US Company ever formed
1894
Booth Gloversville tannery started chrome tanning for goat and kangaroo
1896
Daily output at J.P.Mathieu rose to 600-700 dozen skins
1898
Daily output at J.P.Mathieu rose to 1000-1200 dozen skins
1898
Introduction of enamel process by George S Wolff to copy patent leather. Sold by Booths as "ideal". Wolff Process Leather Company, Summerdale Station, Philadelphia & Reading R.R. "One of the greatest and finest leather factories in the world, especially equipped for producing "Ideal Leather," a non-breakable enamelled leather patented by George S. Wolff, founder and president of the company. The entire output is handled by Booth & Co., N.Y."
1899
Warehouse set up for Surpass UK and European sales in 50, St Thomas Street, Bermondsey.
1899
Joseph Turney Wood discovers artificial bates
1902
Sales office opened in St. Louis (701 Lucas Avenue) to deal with the growing shoe industry, quickly followed by Cincinnati and Rochester
1903
Daily output at J.P.Mathieu rose to 1500
1904
Booths supported building Wolff Process Leather Company. In Summerdale near Philadelphia
1905
Booths move to complete purchase of J.P.Mathieu and change name to Surpass Leather
1915
Lusitania sinks in the Atlantic and was likely attacked since carrying arms under the name of Booth sheepskins. Paul Crompton and his family were on board. He was VP of Surpass Leather Company, and a partner in the firm of Alfred Booth and Company and a director of the Booth Steamship Company
1920
Booth established UK links to Pavlova Leather a gloving tannery in Abingdon, Wade and Co in Nottingham to chrome tan kid for the boot and shoe industry, and consolidated and interest in glue and gelatine through a holding in B. Cannon and Company. Lincoln.
1920
British Leather Manufacturers Research Association Founded
1921
Alfred Booth and Company purchases the Pavlova Leather Company of Abingdon, England.
1922
Tanners Council of America established in New York
1938
Gloversville closed
Strike in Gloversville
1942
Gloversville buildings sold
1945
The Booth Steamship Line consisted of a fleet of steamers plying between Liverpool and Manaus (1,000 miles up the Amazon river). A number of these vessels were lost during World War II, and rather than try to rebuild with the reparations, Booth sold to Vestey. The story is that George Booth (Chairman) met Lord Vestey for lunch. The latter asked what George felt the Line was worth. The reply was "oh, a million pounds". "Alright" said Vestey. They shook hands, and that was that. Notes from Mr Chapman
1946
When the Surpass tannery was running kangaroo, the regularly consumed about 150 to 200 dozen per day- everything that was available from Booth Australia, which was centred in Sydney, with agents in Brisbane, Rockingham, Adelaide and Freemantle. Idem
1946
When I joined the Booth Group in 1946, Surpass was regularly tanning a total of 1,800 dozen skins a day, employing about 1,000 men. Skin supplies came from their own exclusive agents in Brazil, Argentina, China, India (which included today's Pakistan) and Nigeria. Idem
1948
Booth purchase Melrose Tannery in Beverley, Yorkshire
1950 and 60s
In the 1950's, Booth established an extensive skin gathering organization in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika; they took over a tannery in Thika, Kenya, and managed one in Kano, Nigeria, and one in New Zealand in the 50's and 60's.
1960/70s
control of Kenya and New Zealand lost. Booth Overseas continues buying chemicals and machinery for Nigeria and trading some of the Kenyan sides to the UK.
1966
The Surpass tannery was closed in the 1950's and contract tanning at other peoples' facilities was tried for a time, until operations were ceased in the mid 1960's. Mr Chapman
Surpass Leather closed and Booth US HQ moves to Peabody, MASS
1973
Ulster Leather & Atlantic Tanning bought from UCT ltd
1973
ET Holden Ltd (Jedburgh). Sheepskin, pigskin, wet blue, and cutting upholstery leather
1978
Wades Nottingham closed
1979
Booth Group sold to Garnar-Scotblair, renamed Garnar Booth
Turney Bros closed
1982
Hitchin and Melrose closed
1987
Booth Overseas closed
1987
Garnar Booth bought by Pittards plc and renamed Pittard Garnar.
1993
Pavlova Leather in Abingdon is closed, leaving only the fellmongers in Scotland associated with Booth England as the manufacturing remainder of the Booth Group
1994
Pittards exit US office which is retained by existing management as Booth and Co Inc
1998
Pittards start marketing natural leather not tanned with chromium, following on after non-chromium tannages being used extensively in the automobile upholstery business
2002
Kinghorn closed
