When Sam Launer came to England from Czechoslovakia over 60 years ago, he brought with him an idea that has remained with the company to this day; handbags and leather goods should be elegant, be formed out of the best materials and made by highly skilled craftspeople.
Over the last twenty five years Launer has built up an enviable reputation as a very high quality manufacturer with distinctively good styling, and currently hold the Royal Warrant to H.M. The Queen for handbags and small leather goods.
Launer's trademark is understated, elegant and classic - beautiful leather articles made with pride by craftsmen and women using traditional skills. With care, they give years of pleasure and service.
The Launer factory is in Walsall, near Birmingham, the traditional home of leather goods manufacturing in England. Launer wallets, card cases, purses and handbags are handmade in the softest calf, exotic lizard, and ostrich skin. Every attention is paid to detail, and gold plated fittings feature the Launer rope emblem, the perfect finishing touch.
Before a Launer product is made, our cutters carefully select skins which have been specially tanned for us and then cut in a way that ensures only the most mark-free and beautiful area is used. The parts are then sent for skiving and splitting, which is a technique to refine and thin the leather at the edges so that they can be turned. All Launer handbags and leather goods are turned so that you never see a raw edge.
The next step is assembling the article, and this is the most complex and time consuming. Experienced craftspeople carefully fit all the parts together by hand, and work with the sewing machinists to ensure the final piece is perfect. Each item we manufacture is inspected at all stages, and we work with our colleagues in the factory constantly, discussing manufacturing and quality. Our aim is that every Launer piece should give pleasure and satisfaction for many years.
Our design team, led by Gerald Bodmer, the Managing Director, travels throughout Europe looking at design trends. Our pattern makers then turn our designs into reality, making a Launer item classic, with style and elegance.
Gerald Bodmer learnt the leather goods trade at a company which, at the time, had the Royal Warrant to Her Majesty the Queen, the late Queen Mother. After some time he left and founded his own company, which manufactured handbags and personal leather goods for other companies such as Bally, Mappin and Webb, and Asprey.
After receiving the Royal Warrant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for handbags, the company started to specialise in making their own branded goods, designed in-house. Over the last twenty five years Launer has built up an enviable reputation as a very high quality manufacturer with distinctive good styling.
In 1991, Her Majesty the Queen visited the factory on 4th March, spending virtually the whole afternoon with all the employees and seeing all the various stages of making both handbags and personal leather goods. This was a great honour for the company, and in the following year Launer was also given the right to add leather goods to the warrant.
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