World Leather Podcast

Our conversation, in its entirety, with new COTANCE president, Manuel Ríos Navarro, which took place at Lineapelle in Milan in September 2021. Here, Mr Navarro, who is chief executive of Valencia-based double-face and nappa producer Inpelsa, explains in detail his view of the current situation of the leather sector in Spain, in Europe and globally, and explains what his main priorities will be in his two-year tenure as president of the industry’s representative body in the European Union. This episode of the World Leather Podcast is in Spanish. A written version appears in English in the October-November issue of World Leather.

Federico Brugnoli explains why his thinking around lifecycle assessment (LCA) has changed and why he thinks it’s not advisable to try to use a single number to present the carbon footprint of leather.

Dr Luis Zugno, president of IULTCS, talks to World Leather about his 45 years in the industry, his reflections on a turbulent first year at the head of the leather chemists’ and technologists’ body and his hopes for the 2021 and beyond. Asked about areas in which he would like to see innovation in the future, Dr Zugno delivers a detailed list of ideas that, taken together, constitute a real programme for change that leather manufacturers and their chemicals and technology suppliers can, and must, address together.

Image: Philémon d’Andurain.

In this episode, we present our recent interview with Tom Schneider, the founder of ISA TanTec. In discussion with World Leather editor, Stephen Tierney, Mr Schneider discusses the impact of covid-19 so far on his company and on the leather industry in general. In the podcast, he also gives his opinion of what 2021 is likely to hold.

Later in the conversation, Mr Schneider explains in detail why ISA TanTec has decided to launch a new division, Creation of Sustainable Materials (COSM), to prepare alternative materials, made from non-animal natural resources, for brands to use in vegan collections. “We are not saying that this is an alternative to leather,” he says. “Absolutely not. I don’t want to have an alternative to leather. I want to have an alternative to the vegan materials, to the polyurethane stuff.”

The saga, so far, of LVMH’s on-off-on-off attempts to acquire New York-based brand Tiffany’s.

Since 2008, Andreas Kindermann has been chief executive of Wollsdorf Leather, a specialist producer of leather for steering-wheels, furniture upholstery and aircraft interiors, with its headquarters in Austria. He steered the company back to growth following the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, opened sewing and cutting plants in China and Croatia, established or redeveloped sales offices in Hong Kong, Uruguay and the US, and, in 2019, established a new tannery and leather cutting facility in Mexico. He led Wollsdorf to victory in the Global Tannery of the Year award in 2014. He was elected president of COTANCE, the leather industry’s main representative body in the European Union, in 2018.

On launching a new sustainability initiative in June 2020, Scottish Leather Group (SLG) made public six commitments that it says will help it establish a “a zero-impact, sustainable manufacturing platform for leather”. 

Tanning group PrimeAsia has leather manufacturing facilities in Huangjiang in China and in Ba Ria-Vung Tau in Vietnam. These tanneries have a combined production capacity of around 11 million square-feet of finished lifestyle and athletic leather per year, which the group supplies to dozens of global footwear brands. In this interview, chief executive, Jon Clark, offers some reflections on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on PrimeAsia’s operations and on the wider leather industry.

In late 2019, the president of Portugal’s main leather industry body, APIC, Nuno Carvalho, published an article in the main national newspaper strenuously defending the industry against unfair criticism over environmental standards at its main production centre, Alcanena. He felt the days of simply waiting for troubles to pass over had to come to an end. Mr Carvalho discusses the circumstances that led to this action in this, the second in our series of Leather Leaders discussions.

A discussion among  members of the World Leather team over the impacts the coronavirus or Covid-19 outbreak had had on the global leather industry by mid-March 2020.

The first in a new series of in-depth interviews with visionary industry leaders is a conversation with the honorary chairman of the Scottish Leather Group.

In this second edition of World Leather’s new podcast series, the team examines in depth the announcement from Tuscan exotic leather manufacturer A&A that it will launch “a tanning system with zero environmental impact” within a year. Taking part are the magazine’s technical editor, Mat Abbott, and associate editor, Shari Shallard, talking to editor, Stephen Tierney.