An ACCIÓ delegation visits Leather Cluster Barcelona

A delegation from ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, made up of Alberto Pezzi, senior cluster manager, and Albert Lorente, senior consultant in strategic change specialising in the design industries, was in Igualada this October to visit Leather Cluster Barcelona.

During their stay in Igualada, the ACCIÓ delegation, accompanied by Bernat Vilarrubias, president, Jordi Vidal, executive director, and Mònica Santamans, project manager of Leather Cluster Barcelona, visited the tanners’ wastewater treatment plant (IDR) and the new pilot plant for regenerating and giving a second life to treated water, as well as the tannery Curtits Badia.

The day also included an information meeting held at the Adoberia Bella at which the ACCIÓ representatives presented the new ACCIÓ grant lines that will be made official before the end of 2022. One is aimed at companies seeking new business opportunities through strategic change business projects, and the other consists of the grants for Competitiveness Reinforcement Initiatives (IRC) that ACCIÓ allocates exclusively to the 26 accredited clusters that are members of the Catalonia Clusters Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya, among them Leather Cluster Barcelona.

With extensive experience in the world of clusters, Alberto Pezzi is a great enthusiast of Leather Cluster Barcelona. Whenever he has the opportunity, he presents Catalonia’s leather cluster all over the world as one of the most illustrative examples of almost 30 years of cluster policy in Catalonia, since it was the first case to be studied at Harvard Business School. According to Pezzi, the Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació (IDR) treatment plant, besides being an exemplary demonstration of the advantage of belonging to a cluster, is a pioneer in the integration of shared value: a business project that has a positive impact on society and that promotes a balance between business competitiveness and social and environmental awareness, helping to build a fairer, greener and more equitable economy.

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