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URAD HISTORYNot long after the Second World War, Alessandro and Richardo Daru open their first plant. When in 1966, things really took a turn: Mr. Alessandro Daru invented an all in one leather cream. URAD was born! At first, the «demand» came from leather furniture manufactures. They really appreciated that in only a few minutes they could give back a « show room » finish to their work of art! For many years URAD was mainly use by these professionals. Our catalogue included big sizes URAD (E.I.: 5 to 50 kg barrel) and a few other industrial products.In 1969, Mr. Heinz Kaufmann was introduced to the product and was amazed at the results he was obtaining with old tattered leather. When he tried it on his shoes, he was convinced he had discovered something! He asked Mr. Daru to manufacture URAD in «small» jars of 500g and, in 1973, went to a Flee Market to test out, commercially, his idea. Inspired by the traditional « shoeshine chair », he demonstrated the qualities of URAD leather cream on people's shoes, and in one day alone, sold 144 jars of URAD! This marketing method for shoe care product is still in use today and has been copied by many. It may not be the most glamorous method, but Mr. Kaufmann has always taken pride in being able to show directly to people the quality of his products. Not though some TV trick or some heavy image add campaigns; he wanted to show them the real thing, on their own handbags, their own leather jackets and on their own shoes! Also noteworthy, from 1978 to 1982, Mr. Daru received 5 consecutive awards of excellence and quality for is URAD LEATHER CREAM! Development continued in Europe for many years. When in 1983, with URAD being distributed in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, England and the Netherlands, he sat a new course to a new challenge: North America. He moved with his family to Montreal, Canada, and started his URAD business the same way he had done it in Europe, in the popular Flee Market in Old Montreal, where, on the first day he sold 178 jars! URAD was still there when they closed down that flee market in 1997 but not before having sold over 200,000 jars of URAD to people that came from all around the world! Shortly after, you could find demonstrations in all the major chain stores in Canada. It's also from there he met people interested in bringing URAD to United States and other parts of the world. Today, URAD is present in major chain stores, in most shoe repair shops, in tack shops, furniture stores and more recently in some shoe stores. Still, we have kept in touch with our clientele and so you can find URAD demonstrations in over 500 Fairs, Shows and Flee Markets around the world. We are represented in over 15 countries and our catalogue has now over 150 URAD quality products! Orlando and Loris, Mr. Daru's sons, have taken over their fathers' manufacture. They have followed in the tradition of Mr. Daru by creating new quality products for new modern materials and new trends. Joining in 1993, Dominique B. Dupuis, Mr. Kaufmann stepson, also followed in the footsteps. In 1997 he traveled back to Europe, and successfully opened one of the only major European countries where URAD was not permanently represented: France. He now oversees additions to the line of product, penetration into new specialized market and expansion into new territory! You can count on us to maintain the tradition of quality and excellence that has been our trademark for more than a quarter of a century. As a matter of fact, we celebrate the beginning of the new millennium with a new milestone in the company's history: the opening of our Internet site that makes URAD available to the entire world! N.B.: If you think you could help us write new history by opening new countries or want to sell URAD in your store, become a distributor or anything of that nature, I invite you to visit our Business relation section. |