The Chairman and the Managing Director, Mr. Nick Stephens, head the team of highly experienced traders, which buys and sells skins in more than 40 countries around the world. Between them, the traders have more than 100 years of experience in the industry.

Initially, East Hides built a worldwide network trading in Hide and Skin markets. Early in 1999, a strategic decision was made to change the emphasis from being a pure trading organisation, with irregular supply lines, to having its own secure, reliable and regular sources of supply. This has had the effect of making the company more competitive when selling to customers, and ensuring a regularity of quality, which we consider ever more important.

Today the East Hides Group has sales offices, hide & skin collection warehouses, tanneries and distribution operations in many parts of the world. This enables us to obtain early intelligence about market conditions and to position ourselves accordingly, to stay competitive in the market, and to offer an improved service and range of products to our valued customers.

The East Hides Group is made up of the following operations:

UNITED KINGDOM
East Hides Ltd., London
Managing Director: Mr Nick Stephens
- Head office for the group's trading, shipping, treasury and administrative operations.

C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States) - Sirio Leather Group
Sirio Leather Group Limited
Operations Director: Mr Gaik Ambartsumyan
- All our business in Russia and the CIS is handled by the Sirio Leather Group, which oversees the following operations:

RUSSIA
Sirio Leather Group Limited, Moscow
Manager: Ms. Julia Zimina
- Sources our raw hides and skins from Russia.

KAZAKHSTAN
SirioKaz, Almaty
Managing Director: Mr Suresh Chokhani
- Based in Almaty, Siriokaz collects raw hides and skins and brings them to our warehouses, where they are then selected and packed for export. SirioKaz also runs our cutting operation, where we are making Croupons, Avancorpi, Bellies and Dossets.

KAZAKHSTAN
SirioPet Tannery, Petropavlovsk
- The tannery converts wetsalted hides, goat and sheep skins into wetblue for export.

UKRAINE
Yurok Tannery, Lviv
Manager: Mr Yuri Okpush
- Our tannery in Lviv buys raw hides from selected Ukrainian large meat packing plants. These are considered the best quality hides from the CIS and this enables us to offer high quality, selected wetblue hides.

BELORUSSIA
J.V. Amico, Gatovo
Manager: Mr C.V. Gopi
- East Hides has entered into a partnership with the large Gatovo tannery near Minsk, Belorussia in order to secure a regular source of wetblue hides from that region. We also have a production of shoe crust leather which is made at the tannery.

CHINA
East Hides (Shanghai) International Trading Ltd.
East Hides (Guangzhou) International Trading Ltd.
General Manager: Ms. Jin Min
- Gives service to our developing base of Chinese customers, supplying them with offers from the complete product range of the East Hides Group, as well as from other selected reliable suppliers around the world.

ITALY
Gestal Pelli srl, Arzignano, Italy
Managing Director: Mr. Stefano Rigoni
- A warehouse operation which buys, selects and trims Wetblue Splits for the Italian and world markets.

TANZANIA
East Hides Tanzania Limited, Dar es Salaam
Manager: Mr. Onorato Garavaglia
- Sources raw hides for the group in Tanzania, collecting Fresh and Wetsalted Hides, Suspension Dried hides and Air Dried Goat and Sheep Skins. The main warehouse is located in Dar es Salaam, with a branch office/warehouse in Shinyanga.

SOUTH AFRICA
South Hides & Skins, Johannesburg
Manager: Mr Riaan Joubert
- Sources wetsalted, drysalted and wetblue hides and splits for the group in South Africa.

Karan Beef
- East Hides is the exclusive worldwide agent for sales of the hides from the Karan Beef Feedlot in South Africa, which is one of the largest feedlots in the Southern Hemisphere. See www.karanbeef.com
.

Associated Companies:

U.K.
Crest Leather Ltd
Director: Mr Chirag Patel
-Producer of high quality upholstery leather and other selected articles. See www.crestleather.com