THE LEATHER LINK

1st edition - 20/23June 2002 - Budapest - Hungary

The first bridge between the professionals of the leather industry from the East and the West confirmed by the participants

The first edition of THE LEATHER LINK, in June 2002 in Budapest, has proven to be conclusive and the SIC Group expresses its satisfaction. In fact, to organise for the first time in history a convention to bring together the buyers and the suppliers of the leather industry from Eastern and Western Europe was a real challenge.

An innovative concept : to make new contacts, to create links and to develop the exchanges between companies of the leather sector holding extremely different social and economic cultures, in one place and over 3 days. This was the objective of SIC Group.

This objective was been achieved and the participants have already expressed a need for the organisation of a second convention in 2003.

The origin of the participants was varied and well represented the Europes : Austria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. The Spanish who applied for the convention had to cancel their participation due to a general strike in their country.

Suppliers of raw hides and skins, Merchants, Traders, Manufacturers, Tanners, Importers, Exporters and Agents have initiated meetings and discussions linked to the international commerce of the leather sector. Amongst the biggest and internationally well known companies we can mention the participation of : RUSSKAYA KOZHA (Russia), NATUZZI (Italy), PITTARDS (Great Britain), SAS ARNAUD (France) and VOZKHO (Ukraine).

Just over 50 participants were welcomed for a cocktail on Thursday, 20 June in the Flamenco Park Hotel. They were given a file containing the 3-day programme and detailed information on all the participating companies. The linguistic barrier was evident in the first evening but the wish to communicate was stronger and the links started to be created.

During the convention, company descriptions, conferences of general interest and debates were alternated. Over the three days, the work atmosphere became increasingly more intense and contacts were consolidated. In fact, if the participants were somewhat reserved in the beginning of the event, they did very quickly engage themselves into real dialogues and adhered rapidly to the concept. This led to a friendly but professional convention atmosphere.

Some of the themes approached:
- Insufficient mutual knowledge of the two Europes
- Necessity to improve the East/West communication
- Customs barriers
- Great difficulties for the East to find new markets
- The impact on the economy of the privatisation of the raw materials in Eastern Europe
- Destabilization of the economy and the reduction of production in the East
- Cooperation at the international level
- Marketing and exports

Conferences given by international experts :
- Arpad Varszegi - BCE - Hungary - The situation of the leather and footwear industries in Central and Eastern Europe on the beginning of a close co-operation with the European Union.
- David Buirski - World Leather- Great Britain - A raw material perspective
- Bruno Cortese - Associazione Italiana dei Chimici del Cuoio - Italy - Leather, hides and skins markets: trade and opportunities between eastern and western Europe.
- Jakov Buljan - UNIDO - Austria - The presence of potentially hazardous substances in leather and leather products.
- Alexandre Rolgueizer - Russkaya Kazha - Russia - Experience of foreign markets
- Ralph A. Arbeid - Arcapelli - Italy - "Time to change" The hides and skins trade between East and West.

All the speeches and presentations were simultaneously translated in English, French, Hungarian and Russian.

The 3 days of meetings, exchanges and intensive work was closed by a dinner at the royal palace of Budapest. The final touch was to watch a magnificent show of fireworks over the Chain Bridge which joins the two banks of Buda and Pest.

In view of the success achieved by this event and in order to attend to the demand of the participants, the SIC Group is already working on a second edition in 2003.

Contact Press / Communication
Elisabeth Saliba esaliba@sicgroup.com

Available as from 3 July 2002 on www.the-leatherlink.com :
- The list of participants
- The companies which presented their activity
- The texts and the biographies of the speakers
- Photos

For all information please contact : Erica Caron ecaron@sicgroup.com