Presidency 'calfskin' leather

PKL have been a leading force in the kid leather market since the company were founded back in 1965. Their reputation as a high quality and consistent supplier of goatskin upper leather has never been in doubt. Now the Indian tanner and footwear manufacturers want to take on the best in the world at making high-end calf leather uppers. 'I want our customers to know that kid leather manufacture is still our core business. Since the kid market has become fashionable, particularly in women's uppers, we feel that the company has a strong foundation and decided that it was time to diversify our business into the cow calf leather market', said Zackria Sait, joint managing director, PKL, during the tannery inauguration. The new factory will split, shave, dry and finish cow calfskins for shoe uppers. PKL have significant export markets of finished leather and shoe uppers in Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. One of their major customers, Dieter Meinke of Ara Shoes in Germany was invited by PKL to officially open the new finishing plant as guest of honour. PKL and Ara Shoes have a long association through Meinke and the founder of PKL, Masud Ali Khan who is chairman and joint managing director of PKL. Ara Shoes produce about 40,000 pairs of shoes a day in five countries throughout the world. Three phase expansion Prior to the new plant opening, PKL have been producing significant volumes of calfskin leather during the past two years. Production at the new tannery began in February following a US$3.5 million investment. Initially, the new tannery is anticipated to produce approximately 500,000 sq ft of finished cow calf leather per month. However, the finishing plant capacity is estimated to be closer to 1.5 million sq ft per month. PKL hope to increase production in three phases until the capacity is met. Phase two is to increase production to 1 million sq ft per month. 'We already have orders for 150,000 sq ft of calf leather per month before the plant is up and running', says Sait. 'The tannery will provide employment for 100 workers in phase one and this will increase gradually as the production capacity increases.' The tannery is hoping to win orders from existing customers and win new business from high quality calfskin manufacturers in Europe, particularly France. The tannery will produce a range of finishes including box calf, aniline, small calf and pigmented leather. The kid leather factory produces around 1 million sq ft per month and the PKL shoe factories already produce 4,000 pairs of shoe uppers and 700 pairs of complete shoes a day. 'All our leather and footwear is branded under the Presidency Kid Leather label. We keep the finished product and tanning divisions separate and presently, we only use 20-25% of our own leather in PKL shoe production. Most leather is sourced from other tanneries in India but we will be able to use more of our own leather now that we will make both goat and cow calf leather', Sait told Leather International. Latest technology The new finishing plant is located just a few feet away from the existing kid tannery in Kanivakkam, approximately one and half hours drive south of Chennai (Madras). The whole building has taken only one year to construct since Leather International last visited (see Leather International April 2001). The new building features the latest tannery equipment virtually all supplied by leading Italian manufacturers. High quality wet-blue cow calf leathers are sourced from outside India, mainly Europe, and are split and shaved using equipment from Alpe Spak and Flamar Tomboni. The grain splits are then transferred to the kid leather tannery next door for retanning, dyeing and fatliquoring. Processing is then continued in the new factory where the hides are sammed/set out (Bauce) and vacuum dried on a Cartigliano machine. Following conditioning and staking (Cartigliano), crust leathers can be spray finished (Poletto) or rollercoated (Gemata Starplus). The new plant also features automated stacking, ironing and embossing, buffing, dedusting and area measuring machines all manufactured in Italy. Inauguration Dieter Meinke and Masud Ali Khan officially inaugurated the tannery on January 31, 2002. The ribbon cutting ceremony was carried out in the presence of leading customers, suppliers, employees and other invited guests. Masud Ali Khan thanked Dieter Meinke, who was guest of honour and the management and workforce of PKL who had made the company successful and helped him realise his dreams. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony guests were invited to look around the new plant where operations such as splitting and shaving were demonstrated. At the time of the opening ceremony, 70% of the plant was equipped with production due to start at the end of February following the installation of the remaining equipment. Procurement of the tannery machinery was carried out by Alpe Spak and finance for the PKL expansion was aided by the Syndicate Bank of India. As well as goat and cow calf leathers, PKL also process a small number of European lambskins and Indian sheep. Their effluent plant has been used as a demonstration model from a Unido project and is reported to be the first natural effluent treatment in south Asia using reed bed technology.