On the tenth anniversary of its founding, Teknoleather of Arzignano (Vicenza), which in 2022 had obtained Level 3 ZDHC certification, once again steps ahead of everyone with the seal of the United States of America Department of Agriculture
2023 is a historic year for Teknoleather of Arzignano (Vicenza), a chemical company active in the tanning industry, offering cutting-edge solutions, service flexibility, know- how and high-quality chemical products to guarantee the best possible performance in all processing phases. Last June saw the celebration of the company’s tenth anniversary, a significant milestone for a dynamic and modern company, which has always made sustainability the main cornerstone of its corporate strategy, above all with the aim of being competitive on the market, to make customer care and attention to detail its trademark.
“For us, certifications have always been fundamental,’ explains Santino Mecenero, owner of Teknoleather, whom we interviewed at the headquarters, ‘and we have always tried to be ahead of the times, as the facts show, as in the case of the 3rd level ZDHC certification, we were among the very first to propose it. In recent months we have proceeded with the certification of the biobased content of some of our products through the Biopreferred programme promoted by the United States Department of Agriculture, which measures the percentage of carbon derived from biomass within the product, while by the end of the year we expect to obtain ISO 14001, which is an environmental certification. In addition, we have also been in possession of ISO 9001:2015 for several years now, which is fundamental for quality and continuous improvement’.
To find out about the new frontier represented by the Biopreferred programme, we spoke to Lucrezia Maria Mecenero, the daughter of Santino, who works in the family business and personally followed the registration process. ‘This certification,’ she explains, ‘was obtained with the USDA, the United States of America Department of Agriculture. The idea of the programme is to certify the amount of carbon derived from biomass, i.e. from renewable sources, compared to the total organic carbon content within the product. This certification, which we wanted to propose for a selection of dyes and fatliquors, defines that the products are ‘biobased’, i.e., mostly derived from renewable carbon sources such as plants. For the tanning sector, the idea of certifying this type of data is a novelty and an important step forward, but in reality this concept is already applied in many fields and for different purposes.
“The idea of working to certify the amount of biobased content in our products through the Biopreferred programme,’ adds Lucrezia Maria, ‘is actually not a request from our customers but a company choice, since we have always worked towards sustainability, we have always tried to be one step ahead in this area. This had happened in the past few years with the ZDHC Level 3 certification and the implementation of the ‘gateway’: less than a month after obtaining the certificate we had already added 150 chemicals and dyes, now more than 200. In our opinion, joining this voluntary certification programme is an overall step forward for the sustainability of our products, one more way to demonstrate to customers all over the world our commitment to using renewable sources. It is a new piece in a company project: we were undoubtedly helped by the fact that when we started out in 2013, there was already an awareness of sustainability, although at the time it was not yet as fundamental as it is today. We chose to fully embrace this idea and immediately presented ourselves on the market in a convincing manner’.
“At the certification level,” Santino Mecenero resumes, “we have always tried to anticipate the demands of the tanneries and other partners we work with, who in turn are under pressure from the major high-fashion brands and groups. Working in this way certainly imposes a number of constraints, which oblige us to work overtime, and indeed represent an additional cost for chemical companies, but they are also the only viable route that will allow us Europeans to be competitive on a global level. We will continue to guarantee our customers a certified product to meet the requirements of the international leather market, guaranteeing transparency, sustainability and traceability, which over the years is proving to be more and more a fundamental aspect.
The Vicenza entrepreneur does not deny the current global economic difficulties. “We are experiencing a structural and cyclical crisis, in reality there are no international areas that are doing better than others. As far as our specific sector is concerned, the world leather market, including Europe, is repositioning itself. As far as China is concerned, we will be visiting the Shanghai Fair at the end of August (this interview was conducted in mid-July, ed.), where one of our agents has taken a stand. We are curious to understand the developments in the Chinese market, my impression is that in the future we will only be able to sell high quality and certified products in China, because they will produce the normal range themselves in the domestic market. This was probably already the case, Covid further forced the intention to close in on themselves, the same could apply to other big markets like India and Brazil. The top end concerns leather goods, shoes and above all the automotive sector, which is worldwide: here in Arzignano we have a concrete example, but also Mexico, South America and the Far East, basically where cars are produced’.
The ten-year business report of the owner of Teknoleather is satisfying, especially when it comes to environmental issues. “In the company we are equipped with a photovoltaic panel system which, in addition to confirming our green choices, guarantees important savings as it allows us to be self-sufficient in energy. In recent years, the workshop and offices have been rebuilt, as well as creating a small showroom where we display skins processed in our workshop. The investments we have made have been significant, but after all, sustainability, even of the equipment, is a prerogative of companies in our sector. The year 2022 was up in terms of turnover, although margins were penalised in the last few months, due to energy costs, but, in our case, mainly due to the cost of raw materials. The first half of 2023 was good, and this result was achieved thanks to the quality of our customer service.
‘We will continue to invest in research and development,’ Santino Mecenero concludes, ‘we always will: it is complicated to make an economic calculation, but I can say with certainty, that every year we allocate a significant percentage of our turnover to this department. Over the past ten years, we have pursued the experimentation of metal-free concepts, then glutaraldehyde-free ones, where we have now finally reached what we consider to be a point of arrival, to which we must add the low bisphenol dynamic, which has now been passed into law. I strongly believe that the idea of trying to anticipate the market, and to have solutions in place before the demands come from the customer, is fundamental.
Santino e Lucrezia Mecenero
