As a tannery, we work with a by-product of the meat industry – the animal skins that are left over after slaughter. After slaughter, bacteria immediately start to break down the hide. Bacteria need warmth and moisture in order to multiply. This process must be stopped as quickly as possible to protect the hide from damage. This is done either by salting the hide to take away the water or cooling the hide to take away the warmth. For the terracare® label we use only fresh, cooled hides in order to avoid salting which leads to a strong contamination of the resulting waste water. And we only use German hides that come from slaughterhouses close to our production site. That offers a number of advantages: short transportation routes mean less energy consumption, and the shorter the time in transportation, the shorter the time that the hides are cooled, which saves energy and gives us a higher quality of leather.

All in all: from an ecological standpoint, the successful mix of local business partners, short transportation routes and perfect logistics leads to a perfectly prepared hide. Good for our leather. Good for our environment.