Tuscany’s Antiba tannery moved its headquarters from Santa Croce sull’Arno to Ponte a Egola, investing almost €15 million in a new 15,000-square-meter factory equipped with interconnected machinery.
La Conceria reports that the move doubles the tannery’s production capacity, currently 100,000 m2 of finished leather per month. Its total of direct and indirect employment also went increased from 96 in 2021 to 130.
The new tannery makes the entire structure and the production process more efficient, from controlling incoming goods through to the finishing. The custom-designed chemical product system is fully automated and prepares the mixtures according to the recipe entered and chemical preparation for finishing is done by four automatic shuttles.
In this revolution of the industrial process, “the most challenging part was the training of the staff because it involved the adoption of a new working method. It was a real investment in people, in skilled labor, in improving life in the company,” said Graziano Balducci, who runs the company with his brother Paolo.
Plans include expanding the testing laboratory with a view to bringing all the steps in-house.
