中文导读

在自动化越来越普遍的今天，英格兰中部小镇沃尔索尔（Walsall）的一家皮具工厂仍坚持以手工为主。10 月 25 日，《卫报》（The Guardian）在介绍英国高端制造业的系列报道中走访了家族品牌 Ettinger 的工厂：约 20 名员工，大多是女性，用压机切出皮料后，再靠手工粘合、折边、修整和抛光，一只钱包由 28 块皮革组成。首席执行官罗伯特·埃廷格说：“机器人是用不上的。”文章先说明手工工序为何难以替代，再回顾沃尔索尔从中世纪起的皮革传统和行业的急剧萎缩——全英皮具制造业从业者已从 30 年前的 37000 人降到约 7000 人。随后介绍公司坚持在英国生产的理由：他认为转到海外会陷入只拼价格的竞争。如今，网上销售额比去年增长 30%，一些二十出头的年轻顾客也开始追求能用十几二十年、还能修理的产品。最后，文章交代了现实难题：工人年龄多在四十到六十多岁，新人难招，埃廷格希望英国借鉴欧洲大陆的学徒制度。注意：销售增长和年轻顾客的偏好来自公司负责人的说法，并非独立统计。阅读时可留意 but、although、however、still 如何表达转折，以及 compared with、instead of 如何构成对比。

正文

In the English town of Walsall, about 20 people, mostly women, make luxury leather goods in a small factory. A wallet from the company, Ettinger, is built from 28 pieces of leather. Machines help with some steps, but the chief executive, Robert Ettinger, says most of the work must be done by hand. “You can’t bring in robots,” he told The Guardian, which visited the factory for a series on British manufacturing.

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在英格兰小镇沃尔索尔（Walsall），一家小工厂里约有 20 名员工，大多是女性，制作奢华皮具。这家名为 Ettinger 的公司生产的一只钱包由 28 块皮革组成。机器能帮忙完成一些步骤，但首席执行官罗伯特·埃廷格（Robert Ettinger）说，大部分工作必须手工完成。“机器人是用不上的，”他对《卫报》说。《卫报》在一个关于英国制造业的系列报道中走访了这家工厂。

The process shows why. A press cuts out the leather shapes, and a machine makes the edges thinner. After that, workers use a brush to glue each item together, add linings and turn the edges inward before sewing. Every piece is then checked, trimmed with sharp scissors and polished. For factory manager Gary Billingham, everything depends on attention to detail.

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制作过程说明了原因。压机先把皮革切成所需的形状，再由一台机器把边缘削薄。之后，工人用刷子把每件物品粘合起来，加上内衬，并把边缘向内折，然后再缝制。每一块都要经过检查，用锋利的剪刀修整并抛光。在工厂经理加里·比林厄姆（Gary Billingham）看来，一切都取决于对细节的关注。

Walsall has worked with leather since the Middle Ages. It was once known for horse saddles, and by the late 1800s more than 100 firms there made them. As horses became less common, factories turned to bags and gloves. When Billingham started in the 1980s, a local business directory listed leather factories on three pages. Today there are about five. Across the UK, only 7,000 people work in leather goods manufacturing, compared with 37,000 thirty years ago.

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沃尔索尔从中世纪起就从事皮革加工。这里曾以马鞍闻名，到 19 世纪末，当地制作马鞍的公司超过 100 家。随着马匹越来越少见，工厂转而生产包和手套。比林厄姆在 20 世纪 80 年代入行时，当地一本商业名录里列出的皮革工厂有整整三页。如今只剩大约五家。在全英国，皮具制造业只有 7000 名从业者，而 30 年前有 37000 人。

Ettinger was founded in 1934 by Robert Ettinger’s father, who came to Britain after escaping Nazi Germany. Although most of its customers live outside the UK, Robert Ettinger never considered moving production abroad. Making goods overseas, he believes, would have brought more competition, where everything is about price.

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Ettinger 由罗伯特·埃廷格的父亲于 1934 年创立，他在逃离纳粹德国后来到英国。尽管公司的大部分顾客在英国以外，罗伯特·埃廷格从未考虑过把生产转移到国外。他认为，如果在海外生产，竞争会多得多，而那样一切就都只看价格了。

That choice may now be paying off. Online sales are up 30 percent on last year, and UK sales have risen by a fifth, with some shoppers in their early 20s. According to Ettinger, many younger people want things that will last instead of going out of fashion in three months. A wallet may cost 200 or 300 pounds, he says, but it can last 15 or 20 years and can be repaired.

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这个选择现在可能正在得到回报。网上销售额比去年增长了 30%，英国国内销售额增长了五分之一，其中一些顾客才二十出头。埃廷格说，许多年轻人想要经久耐用的东西，而不是三个月后就过时的东西。他说，一只钱包可能要 200 或 300 英镑，但能用 15 到 20 年，而且可以修理。

Growth is not easy, however. Billingham says the workers are now aged from their 40s to their 60s, and it is hard to find and train new staff. He would like to hire five to 10 people, but they are not there. Robert Ettinger thinks Britain could learn from mainland Europe, where young people spend years in apprenticeships before they become masters of a trade. Still, he hopes people who get bored in other jobs may join them, because the factory is “like a family”.

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不过，扩大规模并不容易。比林厄姆说，现在的工人年龄在四十多岁到六十多岁之间，很难找到并培养新员工。他希望招聘 5 到 10 人，但根本找不到这样的人。罗伯特·埃廷格认为，英国可以向欧洲大陆学习：在那里，年轻人要当好几年学徒，才能成为一门手艺的师傅。尽管如此，他仍希望在其他工作中感到厌倦的人能加入他们，因为这家工厂“就像一个家”。

新闻来源

• The Guardian · ‘You can’t bring in robots’: the leather firm handmaking everything from wallets to cigar cases (Sarah Butler, 25 Oct 2026)

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