Turner future in advanced technology

The name may be old but the Turner company, reformulated in 2001, are in the vanguard of technical innovation. Turner is an old and well respected name which is recognised in the leather industry the world over and still opens doors in South America and the Middle East. The company bearing the name is the successor of not just Turner but also Mercier Turner and was reborn in 2001, under the main ownership of Didier Chambon, and located in Annonay, France. The premises, which used to house Mercier Turner, are now dedicated to constructing tanning machinery in the distinctive green and white of years gone by. But a growing proportion of the machinery currently being sold is based on bang up-to-date technology which did not exist prior to 2001. At the outset, the new company had the choice of either sticking with the existing machinery for which they held patents or additionally developing new ones. They chose the latter course and from the beginning all spare money has been ploughed into a cooperative research programme with CTC, the French leather, footwear and leathergoods research centre. The objective was to develop vision technology whereby faults on hides and skins in various conditions can be detected by a camera linked to a computer (see Leather International, June 2005, page 34). This avoids the necessity of relying on the human eye, which is fallible, and has automated the tricky job of grading hides and skins. Chambon has always put great emphasis on research and development and Turner have a huge development programme to prove it. In 2005, 40% of sales were of technology which did not exist in 2002 when the company was restructured and renamed under new ownership. This year, they expect 60% of sales to be based on their new technologies. When Chambon took over Turner, and the company was streamlined, they could have sat back and simply concentrated on existing lines, spare parts and reconditioning. They find there is still good business to be done at the sophisticated high-tech end of the leather trade but there is also demand for the low-end with reconditioned machinery and they still retain a workshop for reconditioning machines. Their huge warehouse is full of spare parts and has 72,000 reference points. Although they inherited large quantities of old spare parts from the former Turner company in Germany and Mercier Turner in France, most of the spare parts in stock have been replaced since that time. However, the emphasis is definitely on new machinery. In early December, Turner began building a new splitting machine, the first of a new generation of splitters. At that time there were also three brand new machines already bagged up ready for delivery to Italy (two setting out machines and a Finiflex ironing machine) and a Lunetteuse staking machine was en route to India. A number of other machines were also under construction. The factory is completely computerised and there are 23 models in the Turner catalogue. Of these five are new developments, five are from the original Turner range and thirteen from the original Mercier range. They include a choice of machines aimed at the small skin tanner which puts them in a prime position in this field. The company take young people with a background in mechanical engineering from university and place them alongside experienced workers so that they can learn the ropes. Once upon a time it was only necessary to understand mechanics and engineering, but now a thorough expertise in computers and electronics is also essential. Chambon believes that the blend of youth with their new ideas together with experienced people will be the foundation of Turner's future success. Turner have also changed their marketing policy and now sell direct since this way they can draw on their own knowledge and experience from engineering to computers. India has been identified as a growth area so Turner are creating their own company in India with Gaitonde. With this in place, the medium tech range will be manufactured there for the local market. Chambon knows that these are hard times in the industry and that, in general, the market is not investing in new machinery. He says that tannery bankruptcies hit machinery companies twice. They not only lose a customer but the tannery's machines are then auctioned at very low prices so the purchaser, another potential customer, is lost. Despite that, Turner will continue to put money into research and development of new machinery.