“People think that the tannery is very dirty, but when they get there, they realize the misconceptions about leather, and they realize why leather is used and what they want to use it for.”
As Magazine Leather, we visited the booth of Mexico’s most sustainable tannery LEFARC TANNERY, Small Skin CEO Mr. Luis Ernesto COLLAZO at APLF Hong Kong Fair and had a short interview with him:
Mr. Luis Ernesto COLLAZO, First of all, can we get to know LEFARC?
LEFARC was founded in 1994 in Leon Guanajuato Mexico. Together with my grandmother, grandfather, father and two uncles. The name is an abbreviation of the partners. LEFARC was born L E for Luis Ernesto, F A for Fabián Alejandro and R C for Roberto Carlos.
LEFARC is celebrating its 30th Anniversary and we are very happy about it. We have been in this business for so long. Today, with our 167 collaborators, our current capacity is one million square meters of monthly production in 2019. We produce 9.5 Million square meters of leather. The hides are sourced from leading meat companies in the US and we focus on domestic production, namely dairy heifers, domestic cattle. Our specialties are vegetable tanning as well as waterproof leathers and we export 80 percent of our total production to more than 15 countries.
It is located in its own in-house store with its different product range. SATRA, CERTIFIED COMPANY ISO 9001, (LWG) Leather Working Group, one of the international certification bodies, awarded the first gold medal in America in 2008 and is the most sustainable tannery in Mexico. In 2019, we are the only accredited tannery in Mexico as SATRA Laboratory, which benefits our customers by providing reliable evaluation, meaningful and accurate test data.
We achieve the characteristic of being a socially responsible company that evaluates ethics and corporate governance. We promote quality of life in the workplace, commitment to the community and environmental protection. We are a member of the Leather Naturally association, which focuses on education and promotion of leather.
All of our waste is recycled and we have reduced almost 14 percent of our waste. We generate 33 percent of our energy from our own solar panels. 100 percent of our packaging is made from recycled materials. In 2019, our small leather division was born, focusing on goat and lamb leather. We also launched our collection focusing on waterproof leather.
What kind of leather products do you have?
We sell all kinds of leather products because as you know, nowadays in the market customers want all kinds of leather products. Leather products for shoes are our main main production. So leather products are mainly wax oil vegetable based polishes and waterproof pigments, 85 percent of the production is for shoes, 10 to 15 percent is for bags, handbags, and the rest is for upholstery production. But mostly for shoes and boots.
When you compare Europe and other international markets, what differences do you see in this area?
What I see about Europe is that they are the best in terms of quality, fashion, at least we want to be like them. You know the Italians have the best machines. They also have the best finishing chemicals. They are doing great analysis on how leather can be processed better for the industry and we want to compete with them.
At the last SAPICA show in Mexico, the LEFARC tannery was used for the demonstration and it was really great. What would you like to say about it?
Thank you. Yes, it was the 50th anniversary of SAPICA and the 30th anniversary of LEFARC. So we came together on this anniversary to do something different from them and from us, so we prepared for this, it was a fashion show. It was the first time a fashion show was organized in a tannery with them. It was great for us and it was great for them and it was really appreciated by a lot of people because it was completely different.
Of course, yes I believe it changed things, it’s a great thing for people who went to the tannery and they were saying is it really a tannery? They didn’t believe they were a tannery. Yes, it is because people always think that a tannery is very dirty but when they got there they saw more and more about leather and they understood.
I think it’s a very good opportunity for the industry and I think that’s what we needed to do, people know more about leather and understand the process, so that the misconceptions about leather can be understood and we saw why leather is used and why they want to use it.
As Magazine Leather, we published this meaningful event as news and shared it on our Social Media accounts.
Yes, we are happy to see your sharing, thank you very much.
So, as a final question, what would you like to say about the APLF 2024 in Hong Kong?
For us it was great here, but it had taken a break six or five years ago because of COVID. It’s great to be here again and to see so many people we haven’t seen for a long time. We are very happy with the fair.
As Magazine Leather, we were at APLF in Hong Kong. We were with Mr. Luis Ernesto COLLAZO, CEO of Small Skin at the LEFARC Stand. Thank you for the interview and for your time.
Thank you very much.
