Tanning is an industrial sector with a long-standing tradition in Spain: beginning amongst craftsmen, it has remained in place for centuries, evolving progressively to the current high technologica level.
Tanning sector is made up by 115 companies employing some 2.650 workers.
The companies geographical distribution shoes a strong concentration in the autonomous regions of Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and Madrid, with some other tanneries spread over 15 other provinces.
Riviera del Brenta footwear originates from the Venetian “Calegheri" (Cobblers) of the 13th century even if it developed fully only towards the end of the 19th century.
Its real beginnings go back to 1898 when Giovanni Luigi Voltan, drawing on his past experience in the most important shoe factories in the States, opened the first Italian industrialised footwear complexe in Stra. His example was soon followed by many more who, formed professionally at Luigi Voltan’s “school”, started similar enterprises.
The period after World War II saw shoe factories proliferating in the Riviera del Brenta even if quality was not particularly high at the start.
The technological-organisational leap takes place with the introduction of new machines and control and organisation techniques, a process supported by the creation of the European Community and the opening of the great foreign markets.
Today nearly 500 SMEs are working in the sector covering the whole production range. 10,000 people are employed by these companies. Annual production boasts 19 million pairs, 95% is women’s luxury/upper market footwear, the remaining 5% being men’s upper market shoes. Current turnover exceeds 1.6 billion Euros, 91% of which is export.
The specificity of the “Brentano” sector comes from the fact that nearly all the designer shoes found on the markets of the whole world are almost wholly manufactured – and to a considerable extent co-designed and marketed – by shoe factories in the Riviera del Brenta.
AEC, the SPANISH ASSOCIATION OF FOOTWEAR COMPONENTS AND MACHINERY COMPANIES was established on the 22nd of February, 1999 when a group of associations that were capable of tackling the challenges of the new XXI century merged together to defend the common interests of the Footwear Components Sector set by the Auxiliary Industry companies and the different Public Authorities.
L´A.I.C.C. raggruppa tutti coloro i quali operano in attività riguardanti l´area pelle, ed in particolare: chimici e tecnici del cuoio, laureati o diplomati, addetti alle industrie della concia, delle materie concianti, dei coloranti, dei grassi, dei macchinari ed apparecchi scientifici ed in genere alle industrie direttamente e indirettamente affini.
L´A.I.C.C. è da sempre particolarmente sensibile alle tematiche che riguardano l´impatto ambientale determinato dall´insediamento sul territorio delle aziende del settore, e a tutte le problematiche ad esse connesse, compresa quella che riguarda l´occupazione. Con la nostra presenza nella rete Internet intende allargare il dibattito su questi argomenti e si augura di ricevere un riscontro da tutti coloro che hanno a cuore la tutela ambientale e contemporaneamente lo sviluppo economico delle zone dove sono presenti gli insediamenti delle industrie chimico conciarie.
