Member Article

Handbag Clinic takes on new apprentices

County Durham-based Handbag Clinic has taken on three new apprentices, and pledged to employ two more every month for the next year, to cope with soaring demand.

The firm, which cleans and restores high-end accessories, has appointed its first apprentices, who will be trained on-the-job to repair designer handbags, often worth thousands of pounds.

Handbag Clinic MD Ben Staerck said: “What we do at Handbag Clinic is so unique that it’s impossible to employ someone who already has the skillset we need. Instead, we need to train our staff from scratch so they can handle accessories made by the world’s most renowned designers.”

Burnopfield-headquartered Handbag Clinic is growing so rapidly it needs a constant intake of apprentices to deal with increasing demand for its specialist services. The number of high-end leather accessories it repairs has grown by 200% in the past six months.

Ben added: “Ideally, I’d like to take on two apprentices every month for the next 12 months, but we do struggle to find the right people with the right attitude. We have had four interviews lined up recently with potential recruits who simply didn’t turn up and didn’t even bother to let us know.

“But, once we do find the right people, like our new recruits, they can develop their skills and grow with the business. We tend to look at those with an arty or creative background. Many of them already have sewing and needlework skills and then we teach them everything else. If they love handbags, they’ll love working here.”

New apprentices Luke Keers, Terri Suniga and Victoria Knight are all now in place at Handbag Clinic.

Ben’s younger brother Adam is training and development manager at Handbag Clinic. He will be teaching new recruits everything from how to clean and restore colour to handbags to how to completely change a bag’s hue or add new handles.

He and technical manager Craig Stephenson are constantly honing their own skills to make sure they are able to repair high-end, luxury materials which can include snake or crocodile skin.

Handbag Clinic was launched as a spin-off of Furniture Clinic after the firm was approached to restore bags as well as leather furniture.

The company opened its first London store, on Kings Road, in February. Since then business has grown three-fold, with customers dropping off handbags worth tens of thousands every day for a bit of TLC.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Liz Hands .