Having a common goal, collaborating, and being aware of one’s role in the market are the key words around which Zaitex and Leather Kem have shaped their collaboration to create a true business alliance.
Creating a business network today is a fundamental strategy to be able to face an increasingly competitive market: it not only allows you to increase the volume of business but above all to achieve results that create value so to land on the market with greater strength and unparalleled supply capacity. ZAITEX, a company specialized for 48 years in research and development for textile and leather dyeing, as well as color applications for inks, paints and coatings, together with Leather Kem, known on the market for its performing chemistry applied to the development of fashion effects on vegetable and chrome tanned leathers, after three years of close collaboration, kick off the construction of a new headquarters that will be both a showroom for their products and at the same time a location for the development of cutting-edge projects, as explained by the representatives of the companies involved in this three-voice interview: Alessandro Ciampalini, commercial technician in charge of the Tuscan area, Alessandro Marengo, ZAITEX Marketing manager and Federico Giglioli, owner of Leather Kem.
How did your collaboration begin and what prompted you to combine your skills?
“Our collaboration was initially born out of “necessity.” On the one hand there was a lack of direct experience on dyes while on the other hand there was a need to strengthen the research and development department for the creation of new finished products. From here came our decision to merge, not so much to compensate for our shortcomings but to express our characteristics and potential to the fullest. In these first three years of testing, one of the main achievements we made was to create a cohesive and strong working group capable of excellently managing the evolution of our companies. Thanks to this partnership, we have already brought innovative proposals to the market, both from a technical point of view and from the point of view of chemistry. Ours is a cohesive group working in synergy: this will benefit our customers, both in terms of service and quality. Often from our customers come requests that can be even very difficult on a technical level, not to mention the always very tight timelines. This alliance was created precisely to enable our customers to respond quickly to their customers as well.”
Was this merger appreciated?
“It would be necessary to make a broad analysis, but to say only that it has been well appreciated is too reductive. If we look at the first half of this year, in spite of all that is happening, both companies are growing, both in terms of turnover and number of customers. This gives us proof that our approach is the right one.”
Let’s take a step back: when and how was Zaitex born?
“Zaitex was born in 1974. We will soon celebrate 50 years. At that time, in the Triveneto region, the textile market was in great development. The founder, Lino Rossi, who today has left the reins to his son Marco, began as a representative agent for some of the most important German dyeing companies. The company started out with a workforce of under twenty people; in recent years, however, it has boomed. There are many reasons for this: organizational needs, mergers, and market enlargement. First they distributed dyes mainly for textiles, later leather and, with mergers, other sectors as well. So today the company counts 70 employees and a turnover that reflects this growth, even at an international level with several foreign representatives. Losing the loop, and going back to Italy for a moment, we can certainly say that, through time, many customers have outsourced production abroad; nevertheless, the company has done everything to guarantee the supply of products and technical support for production, structuring the procurement, logistics, QC and product certification functions, in order to comply with all European and non-EEC regulations regarding the distribution of certified dyes and auxiliaries. But in Italy there are also those who have stayed or those who are returning. Thanks also to this merger we are ready to become the point of reference for new customers and develop the domestic business even more.”
Leather Kem on the other hand?
“Our company is very young despite being created from 30 years of experience. Given the continuing interest and inclination of competitors toward foreign countries, Leather Kem believed in the potential of Italy, consolidating strongly in the domestic market. This has allowed us to grow at a time when the situation is not the best. Our business focusses on the vegetable tanning but we have a highly specialized technical department in-house that also develops the chrome one. We have always focused on innovation, placing products and items on the market with avant-garde and highly qualitative content, thus differentiating ourselves from our competitors. Our customers do not expect from us only the sale of a chemical product, but they expect, through to the end, impeccable technical service, continuous innovation in research and the realization of products of the highest technology. And this is our key to success today. Two years ago we participated in a European Community-funded tender where we came fifth in innovation. We are among the only companies investing on and developing processes that can raise the biodegradability of leather to above-average levels. Also, always looking to the future and environmental issues, we are developing processes that sharply better water consumption.”
Is this approach rewarding you?
“Of course. People who come to us don’t buy according to the price, they want to buy products that make a difference. This is another reason why the collaboration with Zaitex is important. Nowadays, in fact, it is no longer enough to be a reactive company, it is an established that customers need immediate answers; we need to be proactive, that is, to be able to anticipate the customer requests and at the same time be trendsetters from a technical point of view.”
Where will the new site be located?
“In Castelfranco di Sotto. The new site will be larger and will have a warehouse of more than a thousand square meters in which we will dedicate a lot of time to research and the creation of new processes. The locations where we are now will not be abandoned; on the contrary, some new machines will take their place inside that will allow us to develop innovative re-tanning and dyeing processes. A very ambitious project that needs time but on which we will focus our energy. Together. It is useless to go around it, the key word for the next three years will be the enhancement of waste waters quality.”
What time perspective do you have for final deployment?
“We hope to be able to offer the first products to the market already the next year. We are at a fairly advanced stage. As soon as the first machinery arrives, the project will take off.”
What is your common dream?
“In the beginning, it will be a department that only the skilled technicians will have access to and, later, a new technology will be offered to the sector’s companies. Now we are focusing on the first phase of research, and then we will do the first industrial estimates.”
Research and development require large investments, both economic and time…
“Exactly. Behind every new product there is an enormous amount of work involving at least three or four company functions, including laboratories, which are essential. To give a concrete example, the project that was funded for us by the European Community came out of an idea that started a good six years ago: years of research, testing, and all-around work, up to the time when commercialization started in 2021. A huge effort, both in terms of human and technological resources. Implementing concrete ideas takes time, and it is necessary to plan for short-, medium- and long-term projects that are constantly being renewed. We don’t sell talk, we see results. A great opportunity.”
Focus Simac Tanning Tech
‘Piuma’ (namely, ‘feather’) has as its main characteristic, besides softness, that of having has a much lower specific weight than other products. The process for making ‘Piuma’ items can be applied to leathers tanned with chromium salts as well, but especially to leathers tanned with natural plant extracts, obtaining equal characteristics of lightness and softness. The leathers processed with these formulations, on final thicknesses of 1.2 to 1.3 mm, are characterized by a specific weight that varies, depending on the type of leather, from 650 to 700 grams per square meter. Light, soft, warm, silky touch and bright colours are the main characteristics given to full grain leathers, which is greatly accentuated in the case of making Nubuk articles. This same technology is also applicable on Metal Free leathers, i.e., leathers free of heavy metals, allowing the characteristics of the process to remain unchanged even on leathers with more innovative production concepts.
