Tanner krolle moves in a new, streamlined direction.

Tanner Krolle is unquestionably one of the most little known, and most undervalued luxury brands on the market today, it is one of those brands which resurfaces every so often, with high fashion collections, and trendy celebrity endorsments, only to settle into continuing to sell to the wealthy clientile in the know, who value quality and will always be staple customers.

A very brief history lesson, this brand started in 1856, following a Dutch Leather worker or 'Tanner' named Frederick krolle starting a business creating fine handmade luggage form a shop in St Pauls area.  The Last time Tanner Krolle went through one of these transitionary periods was in the late 90's, the brand expanded, and took shops in Sloane Street, Bond Street, and opposite the Burlington arcade, this mass expansion was followed by a re-invention, it assumed a trademark circular cut-out design for the majority of its leather goods, and created a new top frame holdall called the 'blenhiem' after the castle.  This new direction was hugely successful at first, and the brand flourished, unfortunately it sat on its laurels, consumers quickly became tired of the circular cut out design, and releasing the single top-frame holdall in different colours did nothing to hide the fact that essentially they were selling just one bag.  By 2007 their Sloane Street store and Bond Street store were closed, along with a suspension of their advertising campaigns, and global expansion was also halted, finally their Burlington Arcade store also shut and a radical rethink of this venerable old brand was required.

This rethink has resulted in a single store now existing in the retail arena, spread over two floors at 11 shepherd market this store displays all their redesigned leather goods, gone is the circular cut out motif, replaced by a firmly modern selection of goods which although priced highly, are not stratospheric in their pricing.  Additionally a Web-Store displays their products for all to purchase, and neatly sums up their history.

All in all we welcome the comeback of a British Luggage brand which came close to extinction, this cautionary tale only goes to prove, that even when your customers include the faithful patronage of Diana princess of Wales and both her children, over expansion and greed can still ruin a good thing.  Well done Tanner Krolle and welcome back.