Categories:

• Technical, 
• Technical manager

General info

As a teenager, Denny Günsel showed an interest in chemistry, which was confirmed with an internship at a local leather factory. He therefore decided to become a tanner. After his high-school diploma he started training in the Weida Leder GmbH tannery, which at the time mainly produced furniture and clothing leather. After a successful completion of his training at the Kerschensteiner vocational school in Reutlingen, he worked as an apprentice for two years in the finishing department of the leather factory where he was first responsible for the coloursettings and sampling.

In 1998, he joined SÜDLEDER GmbH & Co. KG, Germany's largest tannery with a focus on cattle leather from raw materials to crust for any application. In SÜDLEDER he became shift supervisor in the wet processing department, where he came to realise that leather production is more than what it looks like at first glance. He then decided to qualify as leather technician and trainer at Lederinstitut Gerberschule Reutlingen, in order to be able to achieve more responsible positions and to understand exactly what happens in the tanning drums” and what relationships link chemical reactions in the skins.

Today, he is the deputy production manager in the wet end while acting as instructor for the tanner apprentices. His main tasks include production monitoring and control and optimisation of each production step.

For his further development, he occasionally takes part in training events and keeps up to date with colleagues and technicians from the chemical industry.

To date he has never regretted his choice of career and is thrilled with the variety of leather that can be produced with a unique natural product. Something he finds unfortunate is the frequent prejudice against the tanner profession. Old ideas still dominate, with pictures from the Middle Ages, while modern leather production is a sophisticated handling of high-tech technologies.

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