Can I Buy a Sheepskin Pram Liner made from British sheepskin?
We often hear that our customers want to support British businesses, recognising the reduction in environmental impact that shopping local can have and looking to support British farmers. It’s no surprise that we are asked repeatedly for British sheepskin – our fields do seem full of sheep and after all over 90% of sheepskin is simply destroyed (we only use sheepskin as a byprodut of the meat industry.. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to buy baby-safe British sheepskin – in this blog we will dig a little deeper into why its no longer possible and what we are doing to source ethical and baby safe sheepskin.
Why don’t you use British sheepskin for your liners and rugs?
Although we previously used British sheepskin for our Baa Baby branded products, we are no longer able to. There is only one British tannery , our lovely friends at Devonia who used to supply our sheepskin rugs and liners. This was a fantastic solution for Baa Baby, allowing us to buy local, reduce environmental impact and support British farming. However times have definitely changed – rising costs, Brexit, and the pandemic have made many businesses reflect on their costs and focus. As a result, Devonia made the difficult decision to stop producing baby-safe sheepskin – it is quite a specialised market and there are additional costs in the process. Since they are the sole tannery in the UK this left us with no options on home soil. We contacted some very small independent tanneries in Scotland and Wales but we were unable to find a solution for chrome free tanning
Although we previously used British sheepskin for our Baa Baby branded products, we are no longer able to. There is only one British tannery , our lovely friends at Devonia who used to supply our sheepskin rugs and liners. This was a fantastic solution for Baa Baby, allowing us to buy local, reduce environmental impact and support British farming. However times have definitely changed – rising costs, Brexit, and the pandemic have made many businesses reflect on their costs and focus. As a result, Devonia made the difficult decision to stop producing baby-safe sheepskin – it is quite a specialised market and there are additional costs in the process. Since they are the sole tannery in the UK this left us with no options on home soil. We contacted some very small independent tanneries in Scotland and Wales but we were unable to find a solution for chrome free tanning
So where does your sheepskin come from?
Our Baa Baby branded baby-safe sheepskin is sourced from New Zealand and is the highest quality luxury merino. New Zealand provides a natural and sustainable environment of open pastures, fresh air, pure water and sunshine. Sheepskin from New Zealand is consistently graded highly because the sheep are renowned and bred for their superior quality wool. Sheepskin is a popular industry in New Zealand which helps to support lots of independent farms and tanneries which contain years of sheepskin expertise. We choose to select our sheepskin from New Zealand as a result of this premium quality and the expert knowledge. We source small quantities of our sheepskin from Australia and are always researching alternatives to ensure we can offer the best quality. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on this later in the year!
The sheepskin we stock from Fellhof is also sourced in New Zealand and also from Europe. Our Kaiser sheepskin products come from European free roaming herds on the North Sea coast. To keep their production chain sustainable, they are tanned and processed in Germany and Poland.
Would you work with British sheepskin in the future?
Our current suppliers are high-quality and ethical, we have great relationships and exciting product development opportunities. This doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t work with a British supplier – we really would love to buy as local as possible and reduce our impact on the environment, not to mention stop all of those beautiful sheepskin being destroyed.
We will continue our search – keep reaching out and networking and make sure we are the first to know if British baby safe sheepskin is on the horizon again.
If you have any more questions about where your sheepskin comes from, how our products are made, or anything else, feel free to contact us via email at baa@baababy.co.uk. We are also available on Facebook or Instagram, where we actively respond to customer queries every day.
Our current suppliers are high-quality and ethical, we have great relationships and exciting product development opportunities. This doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t work with a British supplier – we really would love to buy as local as possible and reduce our impact on the environment, not to mention stop all of those beautiful sheepskin being destroyed.
We will continue our search – keep reaching out and networking and make sure we are the first to know if British baby safe sheepskin is on the horizon again.
If you have any more questions about where your sheepskin comes from, how our products are made, or anything else, feel free to contact us via email at baa@baababy.co.uk. We are also available on Facebook or Instagram, where we actively respond to customer queries every day.
