Lapi Group mark 50 years

At the close of the May edition of Lineapelle, Figli di Guido Lapi, S Croce sull'Arno, celebrated the 50th anniversary of their foundation. They invited guests to join them for the Saturday, May 12, at a meeting entitled: 'The Natural Way: the future of vegetable tannins'. It was their way of recognising the importance of the first product they handled at the very beginning of their existence. The event was introduced by Mrs Franca Nuti, R&D manager for the organisation. Other speakers were Neville Slabbert and Peter Atkinson, Wattle Bark Industry, South Africa, who addressed the subject of Mimosa products and novel tanning procedures. Some theoretical points of view with regards to tannins in general were delivered by Raymond Berthet, S C Raoul Duval, France. An updated view of Unitan's Quebracho extracts was given by Roberto Rossetti and Pedro Acosta, Unitan, Argentina, and Claudio Della Croce, Nuova Rivart, Italy, spoke about new technology for the production of tanning extracts from chestnut. The meeting ended with a round table discussion followed by cocktails. In the past fifty years the group has diversified considerably within the leather industry and now consists of fourteen companies across the fields of chemicals, tanning, byproducts and machinery. Roberto Lapi, grandson of the founder, is the head of the group.