USD LEATHER “We produce leathers in different styles”
“We produce leathers for clothing, shoes and bags.”
As Magazine Leather Publishing, we made an interview with Mr. Ali Osman at UŞAK ŞEN LEATHER – USD LEATHER company during our company visits at Aysaf Fair.
First of all, can we get to know you and USD Deri?
My name is Ali Osman Şen, I am the owner of the company, we have been in the leather industry for 30 years as UŞAK ŞEN LEATHER – USD LEATHER. Our tannery, our factory is in Uşak, Turkey. We also have a showroom in Istanbul. I have been in this sector as a family business since my childhood.
I’m the same way. The tannery business passed down from my grandfather to my father, this is usually inherited from fathers and grandfathers. It was the same with us.
Yes, that’s exactly it.
As much as possible, we try to make the skins as our customers want.
In other words, you carry out all the processes from start to finish in your own tannery.
Yes, we take the raw leather and process it in our tannery, then color it and offer it to our customers. In general, the leather sector is a bit stagnant and slow-moving.
It’s actually a sector with ups and downs…
Yes…
There are economic crises and wars around the world, and the leather sector is very affected by this situation and the results of this are reflected in the fairs, which are very stagnant.
Of course, as you said, the economic effects coming after the pandemic are actually hitting the leather industry, the oldest craft of humanity, and we are experiencing the biggest reflections of this…
In other words, we are trying to produce environmentally friendly leathers. We try to produce chrome-free vegetable leathers. We also recycle the wastes of the leathers we produce. All our wastes are environmentally sensitive. Apart from that, we have an R&D laboratory for sustainability, and we are developing and expanding it within your own organization.
So what kind of leathers do you produce to appeal to the end user?
Well, let me put it this way, since the competition in flat leathers is usually very excessive, there is a demand, but since there is a lot of competition in flat leathers, our sales are a little more minimized. Because there is a price policy in terms of quality. But not everyone can make different styles, crazy style products, and that’s what we are trying to do.
I guess you make clothes, right?
Yes, we produce leathers for clothes, shoes and bags. We bring those kinds of products to the forefront. Since the profit margin of such leathers is much higher and they are value-added products, we also make products that are more useful to us and exhibit them here.
Our shoemakers, bag makers and jacket makers sew and exhibit them to their own customers at their own fairs. If those customers like it and the customer in the store buys it, we produce it as a continuation of that leather. It depends on the end customer, the end user.
I would like to add something to the end user part; After all, we wear shoes, we have leather jackets in our wardrobes. In other words, we can consider ourselves as the end user, so we are actually a potential end user. Of course, the most important thing in this regard is to continue this profession without harming nature…
You make Zig, but you also make Suede, I guess?
Yes, yes, our product range is wide…
There’s a jacket that we saw in the back, but are you presenting them as an example?
Yes, we did an R&D study in leather. When we show it to the customer as leather, it doesn’t make much sense on its own. When we put the product next to it, we can say that this is this product. In other words, when we say, “For example, this one comes out, we made this one and it looks good like this”, the customer looks more favorably. Therefore, it makes more sense in terms of marketing.
Well, there are also companies that have established their own academy at the point of training. What would you like to say at this point? (About finding workers and employees.)
Yes, all industrial sectors, including our sector, are having problems in finding workers and employees. Right now we are experiencing it more.
Because our job is a little more dirty and dirty, so it is not looked at very favorably. Of course, staff salaries are not very high because the business is stagnant. It is not very attractive to people. That’s why there are no trained employees. For this, as an example, the state should open a separate department for Tannery-Leather in vocational high schools or include the Tannery-Leather department in apprenticeship training. For example, there are departments such as barber in apprenticeship training, but there is no such department in the tannery or factory in terms of tannery-leather. If such a department is opened, we will work with educated people. And we will produce better products.
I would like to add something here; sometimes it is not possible to find apprentices, what would you like to say about the school level, especially the stage before high school?
I think they should separate those who want to work. That’s why the state needs to bring a regulation on this issue. Families always want their students, their children, to go to school, which is absolutely the right decision and it is not a wrong decision. But if our state evaluates this issue as a separate department such as a school, it is more welcomed and they can grow up by receiving vocational training in that way. We will have a very big problem in ten years or twenty years from our current position in terms of personnel.
What would you like to say to the new generations or people who are dedicated to this sector?
I mean, I think this sector is a very good sector. We are also a recycling sector. In tanneries, we turn it into a beautiful product that can be dissolved in such harmless nature.
Unfortunately, people nowadays wear artificial leather because it is cheap. This is both very harmful for our body and carcinogenic. But the leather we produce is herbal and harmless, it is a natural material that interacts even more when it touches human body skin.
Sometimes people may look at it differently because they mix it with chemicals, but when we actually get into it, we see that it is not like that. Leather is sustainable, tanneries are not a dirty tannery. Of course, there are many tanneries as an example for this. This is also very good in terms of sustainability. Let’s make a shout out to the end user in order for them to understand more easily…
Well, thank you very much. Mr. Ali Osman, you have joined our publications. We wish you good fairs too.
Thank you, we hope to see you again in the future.
Thank you very much.
