National Beef Leather expands St Joseph plant
National Beef Leathers believes its expansion and upgrade plan will have a “lasting impression on leather tanners around the world for years to come”.
The company decided to invest $24 million to update its wet blue leather tanning facility in St Joseph, Missouri, over a two-year period. The upgrade will include new liming and tanning equipment as well as better structural, electrical and water mixing systems. The company is also building a new laboratory.
National Beef produces four branded grades of wet blue using this system at its St Joseph unit. These include its two top-of-the-line leathers: Royal Blue Leather Grade AA and Royal Blue Leather Grade AS. With their fine grain and unblemished prime cutting surfaces, they are identical in quality except for the size of their prime sections. Tanners use these types to produce finished leather for interiors in luxury automotive and marine vehicles, natural look designer boots and large handbags as well as luxury travel and business accessories such as briefcases, attachés, custom-designed fine furniture and other luxury apparel.
Regal Blue Leather Grade B is the third selection of leather it produces at the facility. According to the company it delivers a consistent, premium quality and is used to produce leather for shoes and boots, gloves, non-designer handbags, lightly embossed leathergoods, moderately priced travel accessories and personal leathergoods, belting leather and outdoor accessories.
Its fourth branded selection is Radiant Blue Leather Grade C, aimed at mass-market manufacturers who require a high volume supply of leather. It is used for less durable leather products including accessories, purses, men's and women's shoes, and mass-market furniture.
Senior vice president and general manager, Robert Hein, says: "Our goal is to be a world-class producer of consistent, high-quality wet blue leather in the largest and most efficient wet blue processing plant in the world. This upgrade gives us the opportunity to incorporate our proprietary processing technology in a way that will allow us to consistently produce premium wet blue leather."
