Their most recent acquisition is crucial to the management’s vision of making Tasman Industries a beginning-to-end processor and producer of leather products.
The Wisconsin tannery produces various types of leather from deerskin, sheep and goats, as well as bison leather for L L Bean Inc.
Including their hide-brokerage business, Tasman Industries now handle around 120,000 hides each week, nearly 20% of weekly domestic cattle slaughter. Those numbers increased over a six-decade period and have accelerated since 1989 when the company began acquiring other hide processors in Texas and across the Midwest.
Between 1989 and November 2006, Tasman purchased or partnered with US plants in Omaha, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Des Moines and Boise. The company also recently
purchased a facility in Portland, Oregon, providing their operations with a trans-shipping and collection point for their hides.
About 90% of Tasman Industries hides are exported to destinations such as China, South America and Western Europe. Tasman Industries also have a joint venture with a
tannery in Orizaba, Mexico, under which heavyweight hide material shipped from Tasman is converted into leather. The leather is then shipped back to Louisville and sold through a Tasman-owned distributor, Thoroughbred Leather. The leathers are then used to
produce a variety of products, including gun holsters, utility belts and weight-lifting belts.
Tasman, who employ around 225 people, hope to locate a leather manufacturing facility in Louisville within the next five years.
