Business

A historic British leather goods manufacturer in Walsall continues to rely on hand-stitching and human skill, defying the trend toward automation in luxury manufacturing.

Revenue held. Sick days fell 42%. And the hardest number to argue with: 91% of firms are keeping the schedule.

Direct-trade contracts passed the spike upstream: one cooperative's payout doubled, and it shows in the new drying station.

Eighteen storeys of engineered timber, a carbon saving equal to taking 2,000 cars off the road, and a lobby that smells faintly of forest.