Washing machine revolutionaries take aim at £30bn leather market

XEROS, the South Yorkshire company with big plans to revolutionise washing machines, has agreed a development programme with one of the world’s largest suppliers of chemicals into the leather industry.

German group LANXESS, which has a £6bn-turnover, will work with the AIM-listed firm to use its polymer bead cleaning technology and further develop it for the leather processing industry.

The high consumption of water, chemicals and energy, with the issue of sustainability, are the biggest challenges faced by the leather industry. In laboratory trials with the University of Northampton, Xeros has shown its patented process produces a superior finished leather product whilst significantly reducing the environmental impact from water usage and effluent.  
 
The joint programme aims to enable the processing of high quality leather on a commercial and scalable basis using Xeros’ high performance polymer beads. The partnership intends to have a prototype in tannery trials in the second half of 2015.

Xeros has also said it is “hugely encouraged by the momentum building across the group’s activities” as it updated the stock market on its half-year performance. Income has doubled, to £172,000, but it is the progress made in developing new markets and partners that excites chief executive Bill Westwater.

He said: “The building blocks are in place for acceleration in our primary commercial laundry business. The combined impact of water scarcity and energy conservation, especially in our key US market, are now intense market trends. Our current enterprise customers are demonstrating that Xeros bead cleaning provides a robust and effective solution.

“This was clear from the excitement that we created at Clean Show 2015, with 61 channel partners signing up in four days to provide us with a scalable sales and service capability across North America.
 
“It is not only in commercial laundry where we have seen success. The joint development programme announced today with LANXESS provides an entirely incremental opportunity to develop and ultimately commercialise a Xeros bead solution in the $50bn [£30bn] leather processing market.”

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