FACTORS AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF A LEATHER COMPANY
There are many reasons why leather companies looses orders and production problem usually it is the quality of their leather and other problems may arise. Usually leather companies are in highly agricultural areas that uses various skin of animal. In Kenya the production of leather is basically on agricultural animals that are their sources in raw materials, people in this country heavily rely on agro-industries for this are the source of their employment and livelihood. Hide and skin trade in Kenya is one the major dollar earner the product of tanning and exported from various countries but the production process has not been utilized.
A large numbers of animal skins has not established a good production that is why it goes to waste on local production but neither locally they may have not sold much of products due to the quality of skin animal that they have produced. More of the herds of animals are kept on arid and semi arid lands and this has been the reasons why the quality of their skin is dry and less quality. Also the animals have not been supplied sufficient supply of water and food that makes them weak and vulnerable to disease and infection, these reasons again may affect the quality of their skin scratches from thorny vegetation may also occur, sometimes it make their animals wounded.
Poor branding is another reason that makes their products loose quality this causes damage to the skin animal even if they have used the hot iron methods the quality is still low. If only the tannery of Kenya would produce more quality skin and hides they may be able to supply more to foreign and local customers that can contribute to better sales revenue. Basically this factor is the primary reason in their low production performance.
The method of curing is another reason why they may have fail in production, Kenya is a poor country and they can only known sundried method of curing they rely heavily on the sun to dry leather that do not develop a good quality and imbalance color. More so it can even over dry the leather and they will need to use additional chemicals to balance its color that gives the tannery additional expenditure rather than wet salted technique that balances the color of hides and animals. The wet salted curing is more efficient, faster and cheaper means of production which they have not able to use.
The Ministry of Livestock in Kenya has come up with the following studies; to check the quality of animal production, to check for another process of curing and to address any other problems that the tannery owners have been experiencing. This method has been closely adopted and performed by most leather companies in Kenya including Kenya Leather products, Kenya Yam, Kenya thread, Kenya textile agents and others a total of 78 companies are interviewed. Kari Ministry of Livestock include in their research the animal hide of and skin of camel, cattle and goat, sheep and donkey etc. in their preliminary study of what system and method of curing really works better.
They have also visited some slaughter house and even small tannery and home based workers. The usual methods of tannery in curing is ground drying, suspension drying and sun drying, they have found out in their study that most of tannery do not use the wet salting method in curing some small home based leather business people do not even understand the process that is why they were trained by KARI, Ministry of livestock so that they can produce quality hides and skin leather.
According to the companies who adopted the system of wet salt curing is that they have almost double their production and it has no odor at all that is why the quality is high and marketable, they say that it is so simple and easy to adopt. As of today the performance of leather companies should bolster up to a more productive system since the introduction and training coming from the research and methodology that they have acquired from the Ministry of livestock.
The industry has experience lost since 1990’s due to inappropriate production issues but as of today the government is thinking about the produced ban of importation of leather, that is why these companies can enjoy a high expectation of local and international market distribution since there will be no competitor on the external factor but they will need to produce more quality leather in their country to assure of more revenue rather than waste materials coming from their animals.
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