Heller-Leder 2011 Tannery of the Year winner

An emotional Thomas Strebost and Frank Fiedler collected the top award after picking up the regional title for Europe at the ceremony which was attended by around 200 people from the tanning industry from around the world. Heller-Leder specialise in automotive and furniture upholstery leather.

The judges chose Heller-Leder from 5 regional winners based the following parameters, environment, technical innovation, employee and community committments. TehChang Leather of Taiwan were the overall runner-up. The five regional winners and runners-up were as follows:

The Americas: Coming Industria e Comercio de Couros, Brazil (Runner-up Articulos de Piel Los Favoritos (B'Leather))

Asia (excluding China): TehChang Leather Products Ltd, Taoyuan, Taiwan (Runner-up PT Budi Makmur)

Africa: Nakara, Windhoek, Namibia (Runner-up Elico)

Europe: Heller-Leder, Hehlen, Germany (Runner-up Hulshof)

China: Xingye Leather Technology Company, Anhai, Jinjiang City, Fujian province (Runner-up Gansu Hongliang Leather Ltd)

Supplier of the year: Joint winners Lanxess and BASF (Runner-up Stahl)

Tannery of the Year is organised by World Leather magazine and was sponsored by Buckman and has the support of the IULTCS, ICT and WRAP.