Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
One of the most important jobs at Hancock and Moore is laying out and marking the hides. This requires a keen eye and the ability to solve spatial puzzles. As the Marker, you want maximum yield out of the hide while at the same time not allowing flaws in the hide to show on the primary presentation areas of the finished product. So the Marker has to use good judgement to not waste any more leather than necessary, yet maintain the high standards of the brand. The leather is - by far - the single most costly component in the build. Appx 25% of each finished leather is waste and 30% of each aniline hide goes to salvage. This is a piece of Document Copper being marked out. She uses a gray grease pencil that is water soluble and sometimes you may see a slight bit of this on your new piece - if you do it comes right off with a damp cloth. Once the hide is all marked out it’s cut with very sharp electric shears and then goes to sewing.
About in the middle of this same hide - to the LEFT of the middle actually - is all going to be salvage. This is not usable product and will be cut up for dealer swatches or mail out samples, which is why you never rely on the grain pattern in the samples you see or get. Most are made of salvage areas.
And here's where the scraps go. These are sold by the pound to an exporter, who sends them to China in bulk. Larger pieces are used for wallets, belts, key fobs, etc. Smaller pieces are put in a grinder and made into leather particles - which are then bonded to a piece of polypropylene and then painted. They become BiCast and Bonded leather furniture, which you will find at Costco, Ashley, Value City, etc. Think you are buying real leather? No, it’s leather particles on plastic and will peel off and tear as well.
Last edited by drcollie; 09-04-2019 at 08:20 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Hancock and Moore is the finest furniture in the industry, no one in the trade will dispute that. It was founded in 1981 by Jack Glasheen and Jimmy Moore who were working at Classic Leather. At the time, Classic Leather made the best in category. However the founder of Classic, Thomas Shores, decided that he was going to reduce costs in the pieces by taking a few shortcuts and legend has it that he told Jack one day they were going to economize by going to steel nails colored in brass rather than real brass like they always had done. Jack objected and was told in no uncertain terms that he was not the owner, he was an employee. Well, anyone that knows Jack Glasheen will immediately laugh at that story because that's not something you say to a man like Jack. He and Jimmy left Classic and founded Hancock and Moore with the mantra they will never take shortcuts, they will build best in class. In a few years time, they blew past Classic Leather and remain the top maker in the country in leather upholstery. This photo documentary shows that.
Here is Jack on the left, Jimmy on the right, with furniture designer Alan Price in the middle.
The workers are Hancock and Moore are very solid, very proud and take nothing for granted. I can't tell you how many times I was approached by them and was told "Thank you for our jobs, every order matters". I kid you not. They made me feel like a rock star. There are approximately twenty-six families that form the core of the Hancock and Moore workers. There are husbands and wives, uncles and aunts, and adult children that all work there. They would not dream of working anywhere else, either. If you ever want to take a tour yourself, you will experience this as I did.
Jack and Jimmy retired a couple of years ago. Jack in his 70's, Jimmy in his 80's. When they decided to retire it was important to them to maintain this twenty-six family unit. Very important. They had a lot of offers for more money from large, publicly traded companies I'm told. However they decided to sell to Century Furniture, who is privately held and not responsible for shareholder value. Alex Shuford would uphold the values and legacy of the House that Jack built, and he has. All the did that I have seen is merge accounting departments and install an updated telephone system, then they let it run as it always has.
When I was in the motion plan with Brian, we walked an ancient Austin Recliner that was being worked on. I said "Brian, how old is that thing?" Brian said "Its getting a new mechanism and we are re-spraying the leather on it for a customer, and installing new cushion cores. It was built in 1989." I said "Brian - why are you re-working a thirty-year-old recliner?!" And Brian said "Because Jack said this is what we do - we take care of our customers. But they're paying the shipping on it!"
If you ever want a tour, they are free of charge Monday through Thursday. It's one-on-one, not in groups, and you will be amazed at the work and dedication you see.
Last edited by drcollie; 07-06-2019 at 05:53 PM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Thank you for that, what a great tour. I am sure it took you some time to write it all down. I really enjoyed it. There are a few pictures that didn't show up, though. 12134 and 12135 of the chair in Jimmy's office I would love to see, and the the 3 pictures in post #13 of them marking and laying out the hides. I would enjoy seeing those as well. Thanks for taking the time to share all this.
This was great, thank you Duane. I have always been curious, do you know about how many pieces leave the factory a day?
I'll see if I can repair those photos later this week.
I'm not exactly sure how many pieces are made at Hancock & Moore per week, but I think 300 to 400 is probably about right.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Duane, thank you for sharing your tour and giving us insight into all the hard work that is done at Hancock and Moore! I would love to see the photos that didn't upload correctly on posts 5, 7, and 13. Would you please try and load them again?
Posts 5 and 7 have the correct photos already there. I will repost the ones on 13.
I have deleted all the photos off my phone, so no longer have any others relating to this factory tour.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
I think this is what he is referring to. They not incorrect photos, the photos simply don't show up for us, although they might for you, Duane. This is a screen shot of what we are seeing:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12338
Maybe they are all showing below the text instead of where it says "attachment 12134" etc? The last one lists 3 attachments but there is only one photo.