Erretre have a strong foothold in the Italian leather market, offering tanners a wide range of chemical milling solutions. During the past few years, they have developed and sold their products into markets well beyond the Italian border. These days their equipment can be found in leading tanneries around world. With the increase in business, Erretre decided to relocate their manufacturing site and offices to a larger plant close to the Arzignano tanning cluster in Italy. Erretre are a family owned company and the current director general and founder of the company, Ruggero Galiotto, is still involved in the business (see Leather International, May 2001). He decided to move the business to new premises after they had outgrown the old ones. The new site allows them to improve their research and development facilities, increase the production capacity and redesign the production lines to reduce the delivery times for the customer. The 8,700 sq m site was opened in September and is located approximately 5km from their previous plant in Zermeghedo. Adjacent to the milling drum assembly plant and offices, Erretre are also constructing a second factory unit which is due to be completed in 2003. The new site will house assembly lines for their spray finishing units. A total of 25 people will initially work at the plant and all have transferred from the old site. 'We will be able to produce approximately two new pieces of equipment a day from the new site', Antonio Galiotto, sales manager, said. 'Our output depends on the type and complexity of the equipment being made - and industry demand of course.' Erretre have two main lines at the new site, one for the manually operated drums and a second for automatically controlled equipment which features their automatic unloading system for their Inox range of chemical milling drums. 'We tailor-make our equipment for the customer', says Antonio Galiotto. 'No two pieces of equipment are the same despite the fact that they may look very similar from the outside. We offer variations from a simple chemical milling drum through to a large fully automated, labour saving device that features a number of extra fittings in order to produce specialised leather types.' As well as the assembly areas, the factory also houses a separate area for components and spare parts and a paint shop. The front of the building houses the offices for the sales, administration and technical support staff. The ground floor includes an area where Erretre design and build their own software packages for drum automation. Also included is a purpose-built testing laboratory where technicians can carry out simple tests such as fogging, physical testing and microscopy. Leathers can be tested for Erretre's own ongoing product development or from samples taken from tannery trials using their machinery.
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