The company, which recently made an exit from the catfish business due to poor results, is in the process of finalising the disposal of its wool-on leather project.

According to a company spokesperson, the decision to divest the business stems from the fact that the collaborator had gone bust. This led to uncertainty regarding selling the goods in the international market where trends change very quickly. Since HLL does not have expertise in marketing the goods in the international market so the move to get out of this business.

HLL had set up the wool-on leather business in the early nineties on a buy-back arrangement with the US-based entrepreneur Sawyer of Napa. Sensing business opportunities, HLL entered into this business of processing leather to manufacturing wool-on leathergoods and sell the same to the buy-back collaborator.

Sawyer of Napa would in turn sell the goods in the international market as it had exposure to volatile designer leather goods market.

While HLL's leather export business of shoes is performing well, marketing of designer wool-on leather products in the competitive international market is not HLL's cup of tea.

The leather garments business contributed to a very small volumes to the company's bottomline. Volumes of leather garments/goods in fact dropped to 41,910 pieces in 1997 from 64,946 pieces in 1996 as against an installed capacity of 1,00,000 pieces. Sales of leather garments together with other businesses like scourers, seeds, marine products, agri commodities, etc contributed around Rs 613 crore to the total sales of Hindustan Lever in 1997. With the core businesses of parent company Unilever being soaps & detergents, personal products and foods, leather garments does not fall in this category.