Specialized, solid, committed to sustainability. Muno, an independent company born from the scission of Stahl’s wet-end division, enters the tanning chemicals market. Headquartered in Milan (pictured), the company starts from an international industrial platform that includes over 450 employees, 20 laboratories, and sales offices in key markets, as well as production facilities and R&D centers in Italy and India. “The product portfolio”, reads the presentation note, “covers the entire wet-end process, from beamhouse to tanning and re-tanning, from dyeing to waterproofing, serving customers in more than 60 countries in the footwear, automotive, furniture, and leather goods sectors”. We asked CEO Xavier Rafols (pictured) four questions to learn more about Muno’s strategies.
The starting points
Why did you decide to separate from Stahl?
The decision to make Muno an independent company reflects our desire to strengthen our strategic focus on the wet-end and the leather industry as a whole, ensuring greater decision-making agility, speed of execution, and closer proximity to customer needs. Independence allows Muno to fully leverage its expertise, know-how, and capacity for innovation, accelerating the development of high-performance solutions with an increasingly responsible profile, in line with market and regulatory developments.
Speaking of innovation, what are the priority areas?
For Muno, innovation starts by putting the customer at the center, with sustainability as the guiding principle. First and foremost, Research & Development focuses on high-performance formulations with a lower environmental impact, designed to meet customers’ production needs today and anticipate future regulatory changes. At the same time, Muno invests in processes, application expertise, and technical services to support customers in improving production efficiency, leather quality, and the overall sustainability of wet-end processes. Finally, innovation also concerns the model of collaboration with the market: actively listening to customers, tailor-made solutions, and an approach geared towards creating concrete and measurable value throughout the entire supply chain.
Which are the strategic markets?
The Italian headquarters reflects the country’s historical and industrial centrality in the tanning sector. At the same time, Muno looks to strategic markets globally, with a particular focus on Europe, Asia, and America, where there are established tanning supply chains and customers who require high-performance and sustainable solutions. The goal is to combine a strong local presence with international support capabilities, ensuring proximity, rapid response, and long-term partnerships with customers.
The economic situation
It’s said that chemists, due to their position in the supply chain, can see “the future in advance”: what will 2026 look like for leather?
It’s true that chemists often anticipate trends, but the future of leather is already clear. Its durability, versatility, and circularity (being a by-product of the meat industry) make it a highly relevant and sustainable material even today. Leather has always followed natural market cycles, and we expect an overall improvement in demand by 2026. In the short term, especially in the first quarter, trends will still be influenced by macroeconomic factors such as geopolitics and trade policies.
Who is most likely to experience a recovery first?
Companies capable of responding quickly to customer needs, regulatory pressures, and sustainability expectations without compromising performance and reliability. This is where Muno stands out: we put innovation at the heart of our work, developing high-performance, low-environmental-impact formulations, optimizing processes, application expertise, and technical services, and promoting leather as a durable, sustainable, and circular material. We are ready to navigate market volatility and help create lasting value for the leather industry. 2026 will not only be a year of numerical recovery, but also a confirmation of the sector’s ability to evolve and grow in quality.
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