Andrea Meucci e Valentina Palagini, Dermacolor
Dermacolor keeps fostering its investments policy, so as to effectively meet the clientele’s needs and the demands of an ever-changing market.
As far as Dermacolor is concerned, the prospects for 2020 were truly promising, despite the difficulties experienced by the sector in 2019 – difficulties that did not affect the company headquartered in Castelfranco di Sotto (Pisa province), as confirmed by the positive results registered last year. A significant investment underway, for the new premises, and several little innovations: Dermacolor never stops. Not even during the Coronavirus outbreak. “We sincerely hope that 2020 is not going to hamper our performances too much. The early months have been an uphill struggle, not only due to the health emergency, but also to an overall slowdown,” explained Andrea Meucci, technical manager of the Tuscan company. “The previous years went well and that has prompted us to make such a considerable investment. As for products, we have added plenty of metal-free as well as of waterproof articles and solutions featuring top-notch light fastness. In this way, we have succeeded in conveying style concepts together with our well-established technical know-how.
We have showcased some finishing solutions, like Microshield, that is, a transparent solar screen that can be applied to the different finishing layers and that helps improve light fastness, suitable when it comes to the compliance with parameters and specifications often acting as a restraint, especially in the field of aniline products.
We have upgraded the metal-free version of printed articles, our best-selling items, thus arousing the markets’ interest. Nowadays, the demand for metal-free solutions is on the rise, yet they still do not get the attention they deserve; just like other eco-friendly processes, metal-free will be in the limelight as well, even though, when you think about it, it has been existing for centuries, since, with the due requirements during the finishing phase, vegetable tanning is entirely metal-free.”
However, Demarcolor’s major investment for 2020 lies undoubtedly in the new facility. A future-oriented investment that instils confidence, as confirmed by Valentina Palagini, managing director..
“We have basically more than doubled the amount of available space: the finishing laboratory is brand-new, three times larger than the previous one. The same goes for the analysis lab, dedicated to goods’ and hides’ quality control as well as to the development of new products. Moreover, the new premises will feature locations for meetings, with a large showroom for leathers and articles, and an 1800 square-meter storehouse, not only larger than the current one, but also designed to take advantage of the vertical space, thus ensuring higher storage capacity. The old warehouse has been turned into a production department, resulting in a smaller storage area for raw and finished materials, while investing in the installation of machinery and mixers used for products’ processing. In this way, we have been focusing more and more on chemicals manufacturing, succeeding in providing a more competitive article, economically speaking, that can be adjusted to the customer’s demands. Over the years, this attitude has undoubtedly contributed to the firm’s growth, a trend that we will keep promoting in the future, by adding finishing agents to the corporate catalogue.”
This activity plays a key role in the corporate strategies. “We have been manufacturing finishing products for over a year and we have increased the personnel by hiring qualified professionals, not just drum technicians. Therefore, it was essential to have a state-of-the-art laboratory, equipped with machinery that would give us the chance to finish hides and to deliver the finished samples to the customers. Equally important is the analysis laboratory, where we carry out tests for the clientele, analysis on the goods provided by our suppliers and quality control procedures. In this case as well, our desire was to invest in order to add resources, both at our disposal and available for customers requiring trial tests.”
Brave choices that show Dermacolor’s steady drive to improvement and growth, regardless of the current situation. “These choices will pay off in the long term,” confirmed Valentina Palagini. “We had no inkling whatsoever about was going to happen, another complication following a rather difficult year. The facility is not yet open, but, last February, we arranged a little presentation for the agents who came to Italy to attend Lineapelle. A sort of small inauguration, to give them the chance to see first-hand, not only via pictures and videos, the new premises.” www.dermacolor.it