‘Build It Right, Make It Last’: Immigrant Family Expands Saint John-Based Leather Company
SAINT JOHN—Tolredo, a Saint John-based leather goods company, was founded during the pandemic by an Immigrant family that had just moved to the country. Now, they are making custom orders for Nestle and selling their products through the Saint John airport.
Sadaat Faruqui, the founder of Tolredo Leather, told Huddle he moved his family to Canada because it was where he wanted his kids to grow up.
“I was impressed by the quality of life that people had here,” he said.
Faruqui was born and raised in India, where he received his Master’s degree in business administration. He had a career in the consumer goods industry for about a decade but said the story behind the leather goods company starts with his wife, Asna Faruqui. She is from Kanpur, India, which is known as “leather city” and is the largest spot for leather development and leather crafting.
Before his family made the move to Canada, they lived in Dubai and the United States. His wife created small leather products and sold them through Etsy.
His family came to Canada at the end of 2019, with a plan to move to Ontario. Once they arrived in the province, they questioned what their next move should be, due to the rise of Covid-19. At the same time, his neighbours in Dubai were moving to Quispamsis, New Brunswick and were telling Faruqui about this place in the world where everything was still operating as normal.
The family returned to Dubai before the worldwide lockdown and officially moved to Saint John at the end of 2020.
Once they got to Canada, he enrolled in the Business Immigration Essentials Program and his wife enrolled in a program run by the YMCA.
“Post our landing [in Canada], we were rapidly integrating into the society [and] into the business economic environment,” Faruqui said.
His wife continued to create small leather crafts like wallets, pouches, and sunglass straps. In one of their programs, someone suggested she start selling her products at a farmers’ market, which led them to the Kingston Farmers Market to test their products.
“We found a home when we came to Saint John and we found a family when we came to the Kingston Farmers Market,” Faruqui said.
Faruqui said some of their products failed at the market but at least they got to test them out.
“Six months at a farmers’ market and we knew what this market was about and we knew what the consumer wanted … and that’s where we started.”
Their market adventure led to the expansion of their leather goods company, getting their leather bags into a boutique at the Saint John airport, Zekara, a boutique in Rothesay, Staples, Amazon, and Walmart Canada. Tolredo Leather is also partnered with a distributor in Vancouver who sends their products across the West Coast.
Most recently, they started expanding into United States boutiques as well.
Since their expansion, his wife is no longer creating the small leather goods, but instead she’s busy building and growing the Tolredo business alongside Faruqui. They have also stopped selling their leather goods at the farmers’ market.
Faruqui said the leather brand revolves around them being the makers of the products, meaning they have a sign on their market booths saying, “Don’t buy our bags, ask us to craft one for you.”
This led Tolredo Leather to expand from bags and small products and get into the knife roll business. Someone came looking for a knife roll for someone who recently graduated culinary school. After creating a few custom knife rolls and word spread, they now sell Knife Rolls through House of Knives.
Tolredo also partnered with Nestle and did a custom order of knife rolls and aprons.
Not all of their leather products are made in Canada, they have a little workshop in Dubai and a larger workshop in India, but Faruqui said even if the product is not manufactured in Saint John, it’s designed and prototyped in Saint John.
The future of Tolredo is about perfecting its products and expanding its distribution, he said. While he doesn’t plan on opening a storefront location, he wants to build a strong Canadian leather goods brand that is known for its quality.
“We have had fantastic responses from stores who are very keen to stock our products not just in the Maritimes, but across Canada and in the U.S. Very soon we hope to see our product across North America.”
Jessica Saulnier is a summer intern for Huddle. Send her your story tips: [email protected].
Editor’s Note: This story was last updated on June 23, at 4:40 p.m.