News – National Beef

KANSAS CITY, Mo., August 26, 2014 – In a continuing commitment to their growth initiative and in support of the leather industry, National Beef Packing Company, LLC (National Beef) announces the appointment of an additional sales agent team in China. Paramount Hide and Leather (PHL) will begin this month to represent National Beef wet blue leather sales throughout China and Hong Kong.

A Hong Kong based company, PHL was established in 1979 and through their long standing relationships with leather suppliers around the world, has become one of Asia’s most prominent hide and leather trading companies. The company’s management operation center is in Hong Kong with international logistics and warehousing facilities located in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Zhongshan. Additionally, In Guangzhou’s Free Trade Zone, PHL has established an international and standardized leather trading platform and a logistical distribution center for Asia.

Their team in Hong Kong/China is 50 staff strong and professionally trained to handle hide and leather. PHL plans to open additional offices in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hebei and Jiangsu provinces to serve regional agents and other independent companies.

Founder, Mr. Andy Wong has a notable reputation in the international leather industry and also maintains close relationships with key leather production enterprises in China.

China’s Ministry of Commerce reports that China, with 1.3 billion people, is one of the largest leather consuming countries in the world. China’s consumption of leather has reached 0.2 m2 per person and is growing at a rate of 10% per year. Additionally, in 2013, China’s wet blue hide market reached more than $3 billion USD.

National Beef has just completed a four and a-half year renovation and retrofit of their 154,000 square foot wet blue tanning facility in St Joseph, Missouri. This new facility has a capacity to process over 60,000 wet blue hides per week. System-wide automation and new state-of-the-art equipment additions has substantially improved the efficiency of production and product consistency.
"Now that we have completed our world class wet blue tannery, we are excited to partner with another strong sales agent to help us introduce our wet blue to new tanners throughout China," says Robert Hein, Senior Vice President at National Beef Leather.

"As China continues to move away from beam house conversion of raw hides, we will provide not only a premium, selected, wet blue leather, but also an unprecedented amount of marketing support for these tanners." Continued Hein, "This appointment further demonstrates National Beef’s unwavering commitment to the leather industry."

About National Beef

National Beef Packing Company, LLC, based in Kansas City, Missouri and its subsidiaries have operations in Liberal, Dodge City and Kansas City, Kansas; Hummels Wharf, Pennsylvania; Moultrie, Georgia; and St. Joseph, Missouri. National Beef, with approximately 7,800 employees, processes and markets fresh beef, case-ready beef, beef by-products and wet-blue leather for domestic and international markets. More information about National Beef is available at www.nationalbeef.com.