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Home > GERMANY > Rampenlicht
CALLIGARIS: WHEN WOOD SITS DOWN WITH ITALIAN STYLE
In 1966 Alessandro Calligaris succeded his father at the helm of a small artisan firm in Friuli Venezia Giulia that produced chairs. Since then he has worked hard, taken risks and renewed the business to make his family firm ( www.calligaris.it ) one of the leading players in the chairs, tables and furniture market. An evolution that was accompanied by the consolidation of Calligaris' manifacturing excellence, in the tradition of the best 'Made in Italy' products. But what exactly changed in the last 40 years for Calligaris?
Our firm has transformed itself profoundly: from an artisan workshop producing on commission it has become a company worth 167 million euros in revenue exporting in over 80 markets. Furthermore, over the years we have developed a new concept of interior design, which is borne out of the evolution of taste, fashion and market trends. Our product line, therefore, has expanded from chairs - a product of design which now is no longer made only in wood - to a range of furniture and furnishings that allow to 'dress' your home according to your own style. Our motto is "Italian living": all our products are designed and developed by Italian designers and assembled in our home country. The design and manifacturing processes, hence, both take place in Italy.
Yet, the aspiration to preserve your Italian spirit must come to terms with the organisational realities brought about by globalisation. What sort of relationship do you have with 'delocalisation'?
Our manifacturing process is primarily dependent on the location of raw materials. Since there is no timber in Italy, the first phase takes place necessarily in Eastern Europe. Especially in Croatia, where we buy timber and we turn it into a semifinished product. Transporting it would be too expensive, so this is why our manifacturing plants are mostly based abroad, where we normally operate through partnership agreements with local firms. The only exception is the Croatian market, where we have set up 'Calligaris Do', which is 90% controlled by us. It is the biggest foreign investment that the company has ever undertaken.
Foreign plants, as it seems, play a major role in the early stages of the manifacturing of your products. But what role does Italy play in the creation of added value?
An absolutely crucial one. We have four production sites in the Friuli chair district, where we assemble the semi-finished products imported from Eastern Europe. As far other materials are concerned, we source them from the Italian market: plastics from Brescia, leather from Vicenza. This is the result of a progressive evolution in our company structure from a vertical to a horizontal model, of a simultaneous revision of our manifacturing layout and of a decisive recourse to outsourcing for individual products, components or materials.
Outsourcing seems to have become an unavoidable solution in responding to the evolution of taste and design trends, which in the last few years have added new materials such as metal, plastic, glass and leather to your traditional products. However, are you not at risk of marginalising wood, at the expense of the traditional excellence of Friuli's culture of craftmanship?
We have never given up on wood, but today the world of interior design requires eclecticism and designers prefer to use other types of materials. However, Calligaris is trying to put the spotlight on those projects which use wood as base material. We are thinking about a competition for design schools and architecture faculties to submit interior design projects based on wood. We hope to award the first edition of this prize next autumn.
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