Amalgamated Leather Companies, Inc.

The New York firm of F. Blumenthal & Co., founded in 1875, was the American agency for Anciens établissements Blumenthal of Paris and Frankfurt-on-Main (dating from 1716), a noted manufacturer of fine kid leathers. In 1890 the Blumenthal firm was established in Wilmington and incorporated in 1909, with Ferdinand Blumenthal (d. 1914) as president and Julien Stevens Ulman (d. 1920) as vice president and treasurer. William C. Blatz (1881- ) and John Blatz (1876- ) were members of the firm by 1916, and the latter became president in 1920. Their father had founded the F.J. Blatz & Brother Co. at Elizabeth, N.J., makers of kid leather. On November 17, 1919 the firm was reincorporated at Wilmington as the Amalgamated Leather Companies, Inc., having taken over the business of F. Blumenthal & Co. in the manufacture of black and colored glazed kid and other classes of leather used largely in the manufacture of shoes. The new incorporation reflected the severing of connections with the European parent because of World War I and the increasing influence of the Blatz family.

By 1920 the Wilmington plant's production exceeded a million goat skins a month in an extensive operation including tanneries, warehouses, extracting plants, wharves, and railway sidings. Kid and reptile leathers were imported chiefly from Africa and India. Shoe factories were the primary customers. Controlled subsidiaries were: F. Blumenthal & Co. of Delaware (exports); Febeco Leather Corp. (heavy leather); Qualitas Specialty Corp., formerly Qualitas Patent Leather Co.; Clio Kid Corp. (cabretta and sheep skin leather); Amalgamated Leather Co. of Massachusetts (New England sales); Amalgamated Leather Co. of Canada (for sales there); Delton Manufacturing Co. (shoe dressings); Transoceans Products Corp. (purchase of raw materials); Fashion Publicity Co. (advertising); Wilmington Warehousing Co. (storage); Amalgamated Leather Export Corp.; Leather Trading Corp.; and Blumenthal Import Corp. Manufacturing ceased in 1966 and Amalgamated Leather Companies, Inc., was dissolved in 1967.

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