Polesie tannery closes
One of Poland’s largest tanneries is expected to cease production soon. Polesie in Wlodawa, eastern Poland, was once the biggest employer in the region, employing some 1,400 people at peak production.
Now, only 170 workers remain, with around half now facing immediate redundancies. The decision to close the tannery was taken at a meeting of shareholders due to heavy debts, low sales and excessive production costs.
The Polesie tannery was built in the communist era as a large-scale supplier of shoe upper leather for eastern Poland shoe factories. Many of those factories have now gone bankrupt, owing Polesie around Zl 6 million ($1.1 million). Demand in the leather sector has also dropped off, with newly established private factories requiring lower quantities of leather. Crucially, the Polesie management was criticised for failing to restructure effectively to cope with the new market conditions.
