Lab-Grown Leather

The global leather industry is currently valued at $586bn, and projected to grow at more than four percent per year over the next decade. The industry has consistently evolved to meet consumer demands, but it is now facing significant shifts driven by:

• Growing environmental and regulatory pressures: governments globally are tightening environmental regulations to prevent deforestation and pollutants that are prevalent in leather production.
• Changing consumer preferences: there is a clear shift towards sustainable, ethical, and cruelty free alternatives to leather.
• Rising costs: leather production faces tight margins due to rising labour costs, material price fluctuations, and inefficiencies in the leather production process.

In response to these challenges, a range of leather alternatives have emerged over the years: from synthetic leather to vegan and plant-based leathers. While promising, these alternative products have faced several challenges, which have impacted their wide adoption in the market. From less-than-ideal material performance and durability, to limited scalability, production costs, and concerns related to the “true” eco-friendliness of some of these products, leather alternatives are still struggling to make a significant difference in the leather industry. However, the most fundamental limitation is that alternative leathers do not “feel right” to customers and end users and lack the aesthetic quality to drive wider scale adoption.

One new player in the leather-alternative industry is Lab-Grown Leather (LGL) Ltd, a Newcastle-based wholly-owned subsidiary of BSF Enterprise PLC (LSE:BSFA), who is pioneering a new class of bioengineered materials. Leveraging its proprietary Advanced Tissue Engineering Platform (ATEP®), LGL is developing a new lab-grown leather precursor from immortalised fibroblast cell lines, which is free from synthetic additives and scaffolding. The aim is to create a product which is comparable to traditional leather in composition, durability, and aesthetic qualities, with the advantages of being animal-cruelty free and able to avoid the environmental drawbacks of livestock farming.

3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) and LGL asked us to collaborate with them to optimise and scale up the manufacturing of their innovative product, with the aim to turn lab-grown leather into a reality in the leather industry for the years to come. With our reputation for innovation and scaling businesses, LGL knew of our track record of collaborating with organisations to leverage biotechnology to develop new materials, technology, and products for different applications; from healthcare and life sciences (Ori Biotech), to sustainable packaging material (Pulpac Dry Molded Fiber, Ooho Notpla, Searo) and more.