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Vegetable tannins and dyes: 160 years of expertise at SCRD

Established since 1862 in Le Havre, the company SCRD specialises in 100% natural tannins and colourings. A historical, eco-responsible and sustainable choice.

“Our first job is to produce formulations of plant extracts for the tanning industry,” explains François Raoul-Duval, director of the company SCRD. “We work with vegetable tannins such as sumac, quebracho, tara, myrobolam, tanning mimosa, gallnut, chestnut, etc.”. The SCRD teams develop their formulations according to the leather desired by their clients. Depending on the extracts used, the leather will have different characteristics: colour, suppleness, thickness, appearance, water resistance, etc… “Our products enable us to obtain very specific leathers intended for automobiles, leather goods, furniture, footwear industry… Rather on the middle and top-of-the-range. All the major luxury brands are customers of the tanners we supply.”

“We also specialise in vegetal dyes. Three of them on which we have an almost worldwide exclusivity: campêche wood, yellow wood and red wood. All three are sourced in Central America. We have a plantation in Nicaragua to ensure their renewal.” These vegetable dyes are used in fields as varied as textiles, cosmetics and hairdressing… Our best-seller, campêche extract, rich in haematoxylin, is used in the world of chemistry, biology and medicine. “It is used in particular to colour surgical threads and, in biology, to colour sick cells.”

A path for the future

Finally, SCRD is developing a third activity, 100% vegetal as well: the SME plants and exploits the acacia nilotica in Burkina Faso. “We have already planted 500,000 trees and continue to do so at a rate of 200,000 trees per year,” continues François Raoul-Duval. “This is part of our sustainable development strategy: we don’t own the land, we supply seedlings to the local population who, after three years, sell us the fruit produced. It is a way to fight against desertification and poverty in Burkina, while at the same time ensuring that we have access to a product that we need. This acacia is both tannin and a natural preservative.”

The long-term goal? To develop a 100% natural preservative. “We want to develop a very effective natural product without being too expensive, but this requires a lot of research work in chemistry… We know how to source this product and are open to potential partnerships to help us move forward in research. We are convinced that it is a product of the future! ” The call has been launched.

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