Scan-Hide selling hides again

Danish Crown’s partly owned subsidiary Scan-Hide has succeeded in turning the tide after a drastic fall in sales following the financial crisis.

Almost overnight, the market for Danish hides simply disappeared as the financial crisis took its toll on the car industry and the fashion world, which are traditionally the company’s main market segments. However, in recent months, demand for hides has been increasing, in particular in southern Europe and China, explains Lorenz Hansen, Managing Director of the Beef Division and Chairman of Scan-Hide.

- We have sold a fair number of hides, in particular to the car industry, at increasing prices. This is happening after a period with very considerable price falls and an almost disastrous market where it was impossible to sell anything, and our inventories simply mushroomed. Today, inventories are going down fast, and we are now taking a more positive view of the future, says Lorenz Hansen.

Scan-Hide was established in 1991 by a number of Danish slaughterhouses, and at the time had a market share in Denmark of approx. 25% corresponding to about 200,000 cattle hides a year. Today, the company processes just over 850,000 fresh hides from Danish and German cattle slaughterhouses, making Scan-Hide the leading producer-owned company in Europe within raw and semi-finished hides.