Council members of the UK’s Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists have toured the new facilities that the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (ICLT) will occupy at the Waterside campus of the University of Northampton.

Leather manufacturing group ISA TanTec held a ground-breaking ceremony for its second tannery in Vietnam, TransAsia TanTec, on June 10. The event marked the official beginning of construction of the facility, which will cover 28,500 square-metres and will be the group’s fifth tannery.

JBS Zenda is no longer firing 370 employees and has accepted the offer of union representatives ensuring the request for the 370 workers concerned for four months unemployment benefit.

The main leather industry association in the important Italian cluster around Arzignano and Chiampo, Il Distretto della Pelle, has reconfirmed Riccardo Boschetti as its president at its annual assembly in Arzignano on June 4. He will work with a newly appointed advisory council comprising six members.

South African tannery Klein Karoo has set up a 600 square-metre solar energy system and has converted its heating systems on to the grid.