The leather company Colomer 1792, based in Les Masies de Voltregà, completed this November the purchase of the Italian firm Conceria Ausonia, in Santa Croce, Tuscany. This is a strategic operation for the company that inherited the historic Colomer Munmany business, as part of its international expansion. Conceria Ausonia is a family business founded in 1946 by Marino Donati. His son, Aldo Donati, took over the reins of the business and gave it fresh impetus until his death in December 2020. Conceria Ausonia has a production capacity of up to 70,000 square metres of leather a month at its production plant of more than 18,000 square metres, opened in 2007. It specialises in vegetable-tanned bovine hides, which sets it apart in the market and has enabled it to produce a range of more sustainable leathers. In 2023 the Italian company, which has around 30 employees, had a turnover of just over 9 million euros and is expected to close 2024 with some 12 million euros.

The Colomer 1792 plant is the European headquarters of the Henan Prosper group. From here raw materials of various European origins are purchased, from raw hides sent for processing to the group's plants in China through to semi-finished and finished leather that goes directly to the European customer. At the head of the company is Gil Font, a professional with extensive experience in the sector, who under the purchase agreement will also become general manager of Conceria Ausonia. The factory manager will be Simone Ciardi. For this member company of Leather Cluster Barcelona, the deal means expanding production capacity and strengthening its presence in the European, American and Asian markets. Conceria Ausonia counts the most important fashion brands among its customers, as well as major brands in the furniture sector.

Among the projects associated with this expansion of Colomer 1792 into the European market is the construction of an R&D development centre, together with a state-of-the-art tanning plant on land owned by Ausonia. Colomer 1792, which is owned by the Chinese group Henan Prosper, opened its facility in Les Masies de Voltregà in 2019, with a surface area of just over 5,000 square metres. It marked the homecoming of the century-old Colomer Munmany, documented in Vic since the end of the eighteenth century and once a world leader.

The Chinese group Henan Prosper is one of the global giants of the leather sector. Last October, within the framework of ACCIÓ's Strategic Week in China, the executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona, Jordi Vidal, visited the Chinese multinational's production plant. Guided by the general manager of Henan Prosper, Michael Lyu, and accompanied by his team, the cluster's director had the opportunity to learn about the latest technologies applied to environmental improvement in the leather sector. Likewise, with Aurora Min, head of communication and marketing, and her team, they jointly explored avenues of collaboration to address the challenges and opportunities in communication and marketing for raising the profile of the leather sector.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an accredited entity within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.