AfriTan tannery was first established in 2002 by Craig van Heerden in a farm shed in Dundee, Northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Craig qualified in the tanning of game skins and hair on hides at the International School of Tanning Technology in Grahamstown.
In 2009 Hanno van den Berg joined AfriTan. Hanno qualified at the School of Tanning Technology and has seven years of previous tanning experience in one of the leading tanneries in the country.
AfriTan specialises in the tanning of Nguni hides, sheep skins and game skins, which are beautifully and skilfully stitched into products which are sold worldwide.
AfriTan also has a retail shop in Dundee’s Avon industrial area, with frontage onto the main Greytown road.
Due to demand AfriTan has become largely mechanised.
This has improved the quality and quantity of the hides tanned. The tannery currently tans 800 Nguni hides, 2 000 springbuck skins, 1 200 sheep skins and various other game skins every month.
“All our marketed Nguni hides are branded with a stamp stating that in our never-ending pursuit of quality, sustainability and reliability, the customer is assured of excellence. Our stamp also reassures customers that they are buying genuine Nguni skins, and not the South American imported Texas Long Horn breed,” explained Craig.
Nguni hides include a rich assortment of colour and pattern variations. The more dominant colours are black, white and brown, and in less common instances dun or yellow, or a combination of three colours.
Craig believes in supporting local suppliers wherever possible, and has plans to expand in the future.
Twenty local women from the neighbouring Stratford Farm settlement sew the sheepskin slippers produced at AfriTan, and this brings much-needed income to an area where jobs are scarce.
Around 48 local people are now employed at AfriTan.
One of the potential expansion projects is the supply of sheepskin disposable paint rollers for a national supplier.
Amazingly, every sheepskin paint roller throughout South Africa is manufactured in Dundee, which is not surprising considering up to 30 000 a month are produced at AfriTan with a potential for further expansion (although there is competition from China). Other products produced include furniture, handbags, belts and a variety of other leather goods.
Clearly, AfriTan’s slogan of ‘Out of Africa, always something new’ rings true in this thriving business.
