Elmo Leather – From hide to furniture
A Fogia Journal / January 2026
A finished piece of leather gives little away about the work behind it. At Elmo Leather in Svenljunga, hides are transformed through a combination of material knowledge, modern production and skilled hands before they are ready to become part of a piece of furniture.
Elmo Leather has been working with hides since 1931, when the company began as a tannery producing shoe leather. Today, its focus is upholstery leather, made in the same small town in western Sweden. Fogia visited Elmo Leather to follow the material from hide to finished leather – and to see what happens along the way before it finds its place in our furniture.
At Elmo Leather in Svenljunga, material knowledge and skilled hands remain part of every stage of the process.
Shape, surface and colour shift as the hides make their way through production.
From hide to leather
The hides arriving at Elmo are predominantly sourced from Nordic cattle and are by-products of the meat and dairy industries. Through Elmo’s traceability system, the raw material can be followed back to the farm it came from.
At the tannery, the hide begins its transformation into leather. Tanning turns the raw material into something durable, while the processes that follow shape qualities such as softness, colour and the character of the surface. Modern production plays an important role, but working with a natural material still depends on human judgement. Each hide is inspected and graded by eye.
Reading the material
Grain, markings and natural variations all influence how a hide is assessed and eventually used. Experience lies in understanding what is already there and knowing how to work with it.
By the time the leather reaches a piece of furniture, much of the work behind it is no longer visible. What remains is the material itself – its surface, softness and individual variations. On a chair or sofa, these qualities become part of how the furniture looks, feels and changes through use.
Machinery works at scale, but the irregular shape of each hide remains part of the process.
