Our thoughts are with the people of Japan

The team at Bowron wish to send our condolences to the families who have lost loved ones in the recent tsunami and earthquake in Japan. Our owners Maruhachi have franchises throughout Japan and some sales franchises in the affected region. At this time, they cannot make contact with some of the franchise teams. We can confirm that the teams in Tokyo and Head office are all ok and safe.

Photos of liquefaction, mountains of it!

Some photos of the progress made at Bowron Head Office in Christchurch, New Zealand

Clearing out liquefaction......

Robot camera used to inspect blocked drains

Bowron survives the earthquake...............

10th March 2011, Christchurch Bowron Head Office Processing of our skins has commenced. We are pleased to report electricity was restored last week and the contractors on site are making excellent progress with building repairs. The blocked drains are being cleared and evaluated. Initial observation shows some damage but not as bad as we had expected.

The New Zealand government has confirmed financial support for our staff during this time of repair and construction. "The support from the New Zealand government has been outstanding, despite our ownership being an off shore entity, thank you Mr. Key" says Marketing Manager, Kerry Greene.

Our suppliers have secured and preserved our quota of skins over the last few weeks and we are now moving these salted stocks to our factory. Receipt of green skins at the factory has recommenced and these stocks are being made safe and ready for further processing. "I would like to thank the team for coming together to make this happen so quickly" says Akira Saito, Managing Director of Bowron Sheepskins.

Bowron Sheepskins New Zealand: Post earthquake update.......1 March 2011

Bowron Sheepskins New Zealand: Post earthquake update.......1 March 2011: "Bowron Head Office, 1 March 2011. 'I am pleased to report that progress has been made over the last few days and I wish to thank the peopl..."

Post earthquake update.......1 March 2011

Bowron Head Office, 1 March 2011.

"I am pleased to report that progress has been made over the last few days and I wish to thank the people who have worked hard to get Bowron back up and running" says Kerry Greene, Marketing Manager. " I take this opportunity to report the progress we have made to ensure our customers, staff and friends globally are kept in formed of our situation", says Greene.

The essentials..........

Power is still shut off at the factory. In saying that, power companies are working hard on the faults and we expect service to resume this week, either on Wednesday or Thursday.

Telephones are manned during business hours at Christchurch powered by generators.

Email and IT services have been relocated and restored.

Clean Up

Silt and mud is being cleared daily. After power is restored further evaluation will be possible.

Back in Business.....

As progress is made each day, we are becoming increasingly confident of a quicker time to full production. Our estimated total production down time based on information we have today is 6 weeks. We expect to be back part processing by the end of this week.

We continue to secure our full planned quota of skins and our key supplier Alliance company have kindly undertaken to salt these and reserve these skins for us in the short term. We expect to continue our salting operations by the end of this week.

Bowron's European offices set up temporary email address.......

The staff in the European office and warehouse would like to wish all the Bowron staff in New Zealand well, our thoughts are with them and their families.

The temporary email address for the European office is jackiec.bowron@yahoo.com until the New Zealand server is back up and running.

Bowron Sheepskins is based in Christchurch New Zealand where last Tuesday's earthquake has caused damaged to the tannery. The management team are working on a recovery plan and clean up is in progress.