Wiedner & Iltar's 20-Year Leather Adventure

Vural İltar, a busınessman who is a partner of the Wiedner & İltar Leather Group, has been in the leather garment business with his associate Wiedner since 1989 and now is trying to create his own trademark, along with producing leather garments for large chain stores.

After studying business at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, İltar received an MS in the field and then returned to Turkey for a period of time. Later, he returned to Austria to continue in business life. He set off by marketing Turkish-made products in Austria, but later started to produce his own goods. From 1989-1997 he worked as a leather wholesale dealer for Central Europe, mostly for Austria and Germany. Attracted by the lower labor costs in Pakistan, India and China, he turned his sights towards Asia. Today he works with 16 different factories in those three countries. İltar, who manufactures under the brand names Montgomery, Pascalini, Different and Traction, also produces for famous brand names in Turkey. Along with leather clothing, he also makes accessories, such as leather bags, gloves and belts.    

500,000 ITEMS
İltar, who says that they annually sell approximately 500,000 items, manufactures products that sell for 15-2500 Euro. He states that their market in Turkey is ahead of the one in Austria and that he plans to complement the Montgomery brand with other textile products under the same brand name.

The collections of the company, which organizes two collections per year for the market, are composed of 120 varieties of products. İltar is preparing to move his 12-person staff in the main Wiedner & İltar building to a new building in Vienna. The new place in 12 Vienna, which covers an area of 2000 square meters, will serve as the company headquarters and showroom.

Wiedner & İltar entered into the Canadian and US markets with its leather garments and  bags through the intercession of a designer.  This July it delivered its first shipment to North America. İltar says, “The USA is a large and interesting market for us. We want to be there permanently.”