When we speak of hides in Italy, we are talking about the Vicenza’s tanning pole, an area that includes sixteen towns in the Province, including the centers of Arzignano and Chiampo, which represent almost 60 percent of the entire national production. “Made in Vicenza” leathers are employed primarily in the home furnishings, footwear, leather goods and clothing sectors, but also in sectors that are perhaps less widespread, but not less important, such as automobile interiors, sports and technical goods.
The large leather goods market, where Italy plays a leading role (just consider the footwear sector alone), therefore has an authentic mine of quality raw materials, produced by companies that are at the future of the industry, both from the point of view of technology and design. But it is not only the national chain of production of made in Italy products that looks to the local tanning industry, because the reference market is the entire world, to which the Vicenza’s tanning pole refers on the strength of its production, which is especially attentive to fashion colors.
The productive heartland is in the area of Arzignano, the Chiampo Valley and Montebello, where more than 70 percent of the companies are located. The most important tanneries and group leaders, which have also moved to delocalize production, split 30 percent of the turnover among them, which exceeds 4,200 million euro. The rest of the production is turned out by small companies, some 279 of which are craft firms. The rate of employment is significant: approximately 11,500 persons are employed by tanneries and hide finishing companies.
The propensity for exportation reveals the vitality of the eight hundred Vicenza’s tanneries: a third of the production goes the way of international markets, accounting for invoicing beyond the borders of over 1,600 million euro.