Refalett GmbH is located in the middle of the picturesque Mulde Valley - surrounded by green forests and only around twenty minutes away from the Saxon mining town of Freiberg. The plant currently employs 35 people. The products are shipped worldwide from Europe to America and Asia. The leather products are mainly used in the shoe industry as midsoles or so-called rear caps, the stiffening of the heel area. During the First World War, processes for manufacturing leather fibre products were developed simultaneously in Italy, the USA and Germany. From around 1920, Kötitzer Ledertuch- und Wachstuchwerke AG, based near Coswig near Dresden, produced leather fibre fabrics, which experienced a veritable boom. With the takeover of the Siebenlehner paper mill, an additional production facility was created in which the two existing Fourdrinier machines could continue to be used for the production of leather fibre materials. In the GDR, VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) Lederfaserwerk Siebenlehn was the largest manufacturer of leather fibre material. Today, the expertise and machines are used to give a new lease of life not only to the valuable raw material leather, but also to worn jeans and even coffee grounds and paper cups.