Colombian company opens new tannery
04/05/2017
Company president, Juan Raúl Vélez, said on opening the new facility that it will have the capacity to process up to 30,000 hides per month using sustainable tanning and waste management methods. Compared to leather manufacturing operations that the company used previously, the new tannery will offer Cueros Vélez savings of between 30% and 35% in water use, and of 30% in energy consumption.
The tannery, in which the company has invested around $20 million, will create around 250 new jobs in the area around Amagá.
Juan Raúl Vélez founded the company in 1986 and built up a network of retail stores selling footwear and leathergoods in Colombia and in Venezuela, Ecuador, Panamá, Costa Rica and Guatemala. An expansion programme in the early part of this decade took the company into the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Peru and Chile, and now Cueros Vélez also has customers in Australia, Italy and Germany.
He said that the new tannery will help the company expand internationally, particularly in Europe and in the US. He said his aim is to supply all the leather Cueros Vélez needs internally and to export finished products worth $15 million to the US and Europe in 2018.
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