CREVILLENT, Spain —Naturtex has successfully morphed from a leather handbag manufacturer into a serious supplier of high end woven leather and stainless steel mesh to the hospitality industry.

Fernando Belso, principal of the company, began to sell woven leather just 15 years ago directly to architects and designers in Europe and America. Artesia is the original company that was started by his father 51 years ago and it became an important supplier to Prada, Belso said. Now, the emphasis is on expensive niche products geared to hospitality for use in partitions and walls as a decorative element. The products, which include combinations of woven stainless steel in combination with paper and nylon warps, sell for $150 a meter for starters. Fernando Belso

Belso participated along with other Spanish companies in Shanghai Intertextile this year. Naturtex was one of the few companies specializing only in contract fabrics at that Fair in Shanghai which is largely residential in nature. Until American hospitality supplier George Whyte happened to walk on the Naturtex stand in Shanghai, he was bitterly disappointed in the lack of innovative products at the Show this year but he was pleasantly surprised to stumble on the Naturtex stand.

Naturtex works with Harmontex on the distribution of its products in China. In the USA, the products are distributed by Nobus Resources in Austin,
Texas.   F&FI