Connolly

Connolly Leather

One of the most famous tanneries in England was Connolly Leather Limited, founded in 1878. Connolly supplied most of the leather for the British car industry, including Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar and Rover, but also non-British makes such as Ferrari, Maserati, Lincoln or Lexus. Usually luxury car producers don’t mention who manufactured the leather inside, but Connolly created such a strong brand that it was promoted by the car producers. Today, no luxury car producer promotes the company making the leather for them.

Connolly was famous during the period when vegetable tanned leather was used extensively. The seats in the British House of Commons are also upholstered with Connolly leather, as are the upholstery in vehicles of the royal house. The coach of Edward VII in the year 1902 at his coronation had been saddled by Connolly. Connolly leather was also used in the French Concorde.

Connolly leather in the Honda Prelude SN convertible. - Connolly leather in the Audi V8 Classic Line.

But Connolly also took some wrong decisions when trying to enter the American market and had to close in 2002. The best-known brand for luxury leather for cars completely vanished from the market. At the end of this little more than 120-year history, Connolly Leather Ltd. was said to be nearly 24 million euros in debt.

Besides their main business of selling leather, Connolly was also successful at selling cleaning and care products for leather (the famous Hide Food) as well as selling leather colours. From this time, the expression ‘Connollising’ became a word for cleaning, maintaining and renewing the leather colour. Some use the expression only for cleaning and caring the leather. Others also for the colouring treatment. In fact, any conserving or repair treatment except replacing the leather falls under the term ‘Connollising’ and the treated leather is considered to have been ‘Connollised’. Since the company closed, the term ‘Connollising’ is slowly being used less. Only the famous Hide Food care kit is still sold.

Connollising - Connollised

Leather cleaning, leather care and leather repair products have changed in the last 20 years. There was a radical change from the solvent based leather colours of the time of Connolly, to the more sensitive and greener water based pigment colours of today. Vegetable-tanned leather is rarely used in today's cars as chrome tanning and synthetic tanning are the main tanning methods.

Modern cleaning, colour repair and maintenance

-> COLOURLOCK - CLEANING AND CARE OF CAR LEATHER

-> COLOURLOCK - REPAIRING COLOUR DAMAGES ON CAR LEATHER

-> COLOURLOCK - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CLEANING AND CARING OF CAR LEATHER

Further brands of tanneries of car leather

Apart from Connolly, it has hardly been possible for a leather manufacturer to publish their own brand in the car. Poltrona Frau from Italy and Bridge of Weir from Scotland are exceptions.