Colombian finished product brand to build its own beamhouse
09/04/2014
Medellín-based Cueros Vélez already runs its own retanning and finishing plant, but the company is in the middle of an ambitious expansion strategy across Latin America and has decided to produce its own wet blue plant too. The new tannery will be located in Amagá, in the province of Antioquía, and will have the capacity to process 12,000 hides a month. It will come into operation in 2015.
Speaking to local media about the project, chief executive, César Maldonado, said: “It is essential for us to have control over our most important resource, which is leather. We no longer want to leave this in the hands of a third party.”
The company recently opened the first of what it says will be several leathergoods stores in Peru. It also intends to increase its presence in Ecuador this year, although it has pulled out of Venezuela following economic restrictions and social unrest in that country in the early part of 2014.
Its focus in the domestic market over the next four years will be to roll out as many as 150 new stores under its Nappa label, aimed at “a more popular market”, according to Mr Maldonado.
Cueros Vélez registered revenues of more than $105 million for 2013, growth of 18% year on year.
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