Acabados Abellán is a leather tanning company located in Petrer with a track record of over thirty years working in the footwear, bags and leather goods sectors. Pascual Abellán, the Director of Acabados Abellán, tells us about how the company has evolved, the changes that have occurred in the leather tanning sector and what its future is.
How has a company like Acabados Abellán evolved in the last 20 years?
Acabados Abellán has evolved using the latest technology that has helped us in our exports venture. We started investing in R+D many years ago and it has been a great success. At the same time, we continue to be environmentally friendly when it comes to our tanned leather production process by incorporating innovative techniques that comply with the environmental regulations in force, which enables us to keep being highly competitive within the industry.
What are your expectations for Acabados Abellán in the next few years?
Continue to enhance the product so that we can win over more clients on a daily basis, carry on penetrating new markets, and also capture new foreign and national clients. Our future lies in investing in technology that makes our production 100% sustainable, so that we can eradicate the use of chrome as a tanning agent definitively, and go back to using vegetable tanning agents, be more advanced technologically speaking, and cut down on the consumption of water in the processes by using new machines and production systems.
Is the leather tanning industry in the valley of Elda all thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of the business people?
Of course it is. This industry has always been very dynamic and it has played a fundamental role in the development of the Spanish economy. During the 1960s and 70s in Elda we realized that we had to start exporting our shoes abroad. This enthusiasm to export, together with our cheap labour costs, our creativity and our designs helped us establish ourselves in increasingly more marketing companies from the USA and Europe. This was the first great economic and social transformation that lasted until the 1980s. Nowadays in the Elda-Petrer area, the tanning industry has cleverly united the traditional craftsmanship of this strategic valley with the technological progress needed to be in the lead in terms of innovation.
Spain is the second biggest producer of tanned leather in Europe, just behind Italy. Do you think that Spanish leather has won prestige abroad?
Yes, Spanish tanned leather has won prestige in international markets. Good proof of this is the demand for Spanish leather among luxury firms and the fact that many companies export up to 80% or 90% of their production, specifically to Italy and France. In the next few years, leather will be a determining factor in luxury fashion and its value as a material will increase.
What do you think about the current situation of the sector?
The business environment in the leather industry is constantly changing. Tanned leather is a material that is obtained by treating animal skins and it is a by-product of the meat industry. That is why; the consumption pattern of red meat is of significant importance for the sector’s supply of raw materials. Moreover, other materials are becoming more competitive, which means that we have to justify why leather is more expensive by using values such as sustainability, ethics and durability.
How do you think the Spanish leather tanning sector will evolve in the next few years?
The sector will become even more competitive, there will be a greater need for the suppliers to work together and become more specialized. In my opinion, there is going to be a resurgence of the small, much specialised leather tanning firms that have a clear international outlook. We will have leather tanning companies with the ISO quality certificates, which are environmentally friendly and sustainable.
