Spa has gained thirty years of experience in the raw materials business, sourcing hides from the former Yugoslavia. The company’s operational base is in Tuzla, the third largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has other offices in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade and in Slovenia

Sapa sources around 30,000 hides and skins per year from small and medium local slaughterhouses in the region and all the material is shipped to the LWG certified headquarters in Santa Croce sull’Arno , where the product is checked and selected by experts in the sector.

Thanks to collaboration with Gruppo Mastrotto, thirty percent of the raw material is tanned into wet blue in the factory in Santa Croce sull’Arno, and which is also LWG certified.

With the experience gained from working with an important fashion brand in the last two years, Sapa is now complying with transparency and traceability protocols for the raw material it supplies.

It has set up a project called Totally Clear Sapait which aims to track the origin of each hide. After selection, the hide is stamped with a mark that distinguishes the slaughterhouse and the area of origin. This punch remains recognizable even after various processing cycles.

So far, only 12% – 15% of hides are marked with this tracking option but Sapa’s aim is to cover 90% of the material it supplies with this traceability option by the end of 2023. Such an advance will enable the company to offer this service to other customers and, at the same time, comply with the transparency and traceability demands of the changing leather market.