A BUSINESS that uses North-East skilled labour to supply moneybags in Chelsea is recruiting new talent.

County Durham-based Handbag Clinic has taken on three new apprentices, and pledged to employ two more every month for the next year, to cope with soaring demand.

The firm, which cleans and restores high-end accessories, has appointed its first apprentices, who will be trained on-the-job to repair designer handbags, often worth thousands of pounds.

Ben Staerck, managing director of Handbag, said: “What we do at Handbag Clinic is so unique that it’s impossible to employ someone who already has the skillset we need. Instead, we need to train our staff from scratch so they can handle accessories made by the world’s most renowned designers.”

Burnopfield-headquartered Handbag Clinic is growing so rapidly it needs a constant intake of apprentices to deal with increasing demand for its specialist services. The number of leather accessories it repairs has grown by 200 per cent in the past six months.

Mr Staerck added: “Ideally, I’d like to take on two apprentices every month for the next 12 months, but we do struggle to find the right people with the right attitude. We have had four interviews lined up recently with potential recruits who simply didn’t turn up and didn’t even bother to let us know.

“But, once we do find the right people, like our new recruits, they can develop their skills and grow with the business. We tend to look at those with an arty or creative background. Many of them already have sewing and needlework skills and then we teach them everything else. If they love handbags, they’ll love working here.”

New apprentices Luke Keers, Terri Suniga and Victoria Knight are all now in place at Handbag Clinic.

Ben’s younger brother Adam, training and development manager at the firm, will be teaching new recruits everything from how to clean and restore colour to handbags to how to completely change a bag’s hue or add new handles.

Handbag Clinic was launched as a spin-off of Furniture Clinic after the firm was approached to restore bags as well as leather furniture.

The company opened its first London store, on Kings Road, in February. Since then business has grown three-fold, with customers dropping off handbags worth tens of thousands every day at what one well-heeled customer has called 'London's first handbag hospital'.