Concentration of industrial and craftsman furniture production in the province of Como
Pietro Stroppa
Library by Lema bedroom by De Baggis Library by Besana
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Concentration of industrial and craftsman furniture production in the province of Como Pietro Stroppa
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Library by Lema bedroom by De Baggis Library by Besana |
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Over the last 22 years, our Publishing House
has been carrying out market studies in the furniture sector by Country,
Region, Province and industrial areas, with the objective to provide the
reader with a vast and precise image of the size of the various business
segments. As opposed to the methods adopted by some research companies,
which use official statistic data and describe trends and projections in
the comfort of their offices, our Publishing House has always carried
out 'field market researches'. The data thus gathered are processed in a
powerful computer and will update a worlwide database containing, as of
today, 105,910 company names. This file is then used to despatch our
publications all over the world, and can be visited (requiring password)
in the www.datalignum.com search engine owned by the English company
Datalignum.com Ltd. Here follows a study on the 'Concentration of
industrial and craftsman furniture production in the province of Como '
From the map published, it is evident that the concentration in the
province of Como is mainly in three centres: Cantù, Cabiate and Mariano
Comense. These towns are part of what has always been known as the 'Brianza'
in the province of Como, as the other part is located south of this, but
in the province of Milan. This area was born at the beginning of '900 on
the initiative of many small craftsmen who carried out their work with
competence and passion. For political reasons, some years ago part of
the province of Como was transferred under the administration of the
Lecco province, but the business concentration remained the same. An
example is that of the company Grattarola, located in Bindo di Cortenova,
which is now in the province of Lecco. Up to the 70ies and 80ies, the
furniture 'made in Brianza' was a strong 'brand appreciated all over the
world'. Market dynamics led the furniture industries of the Pesaro area
(central Italy) first, and the Veneto area (eastern Italy) later, to
develop so much as to obfuscate the prestige of the furniture 'made in
Brianza'. In over 38 years of uninterrupted activity in the sector, in
the various roles I have worked in, I have had the opportunity to learn
the way the 'brianzoli' businessmen think and operate, and what I am
about to write has been already declared by myself twenty years ago. Due
to the fact that the industrial development in Italy took place
especially in the Veneto area (which today holds 1st place for turnover
and companies size), the Brianza furniture has paid, in my opinion, the
consequences of a closed mentality, hostile to experiments and
innovations. The Brianza entrepreneur - generally speaking - is prepared
to adopt a new technology or product only when this has already been
tried and tested on the market, thus loosing a time advantage on the
competition and falling behind with production processes. Another
peculiarity of the Brianza entrepreneur is his approach when acquiring a
new product. Comparison parameters, product properties and/or
differences in the various brands are not considered, and the price is
the only basis on which to make a decision. The result is a great
evaluation mistake. For this and other reasons, including the difficulty
in finding labour amongst young people, the 'made in Brianza' furniture
has lost competitiveness and over the last years many companies have
stopped production and have 'converted into retail'. However, the
Brianza entrepreneur is credited with being a hard worker, solid from a
fincial point of view and cautious in investments. Clearly, the
character described in the previous page is typical of small companies
and workshops, the larger industries are run in a professional and
positive way. The province of Como houses the best of Italian companies,
in terms of historical tradition and the quality of their production.
Here follow some of the leading companies operating in the sector: B & B
Italia in Novedrate, Besana in Mariano Comense, Borghi in Cantù, Brivio
in Novedrate, Cappellini in Arosio, Colombo 907 in Carugo, De Baggis in
Cantù, Former di Montesolaro in Carimate, Imel in Arosio, Lema in Alzate
Brianza, Misura Emme in Mariano Comense, Poliform in Inverigo, Tiemme in
Carugo, Turri in Carugo, Ycami in Novedrate. As mentioned, the company
names listed in the two printouts published, one in alphabetical order
and the other per geographical area (progressive zip code) have been
extrapolated from the www.datalignum.com research engine which is
divided into 10 market segments: - kitchens -living/sitting rooms -
armchairs, settees - bedrooms, wardrobes - bathrooms - office - garden -
hall/miscellaneous - tables/chairs - reproduction furniture. This report
does not deal with the production of components, cupboard doors,
profiles, drawers, curved tops, glass/mirrors, semi-finished/hollow-core
products, hardware, handles, furniture mechanisms, etc. For these items,
there are specific sections in www.datalignum.com. Information on how to
access the search engine and how to use its database are illustrated at
the back of the magazine. Here follows integral text relating to the
wood sector: 'Production trend of the second half of 2003 registered a
slight decrease amongst the companies in the survey. In particular, the
compression refers mainly to the domestic market, while the exports,
especially towards the Far East and Eastern Europe markets, provide
comforting results. Stock reserves, consisting mainly of semi-finished
products, are adequate to production requirements. As far as payment
terms are concerned, the average paying delay for domestic and
international market ranges between 90 and 120 days, while orders from
new markets and especially from Eastern Europe markets are accepted only
on a pro-forma basis. Orders backlog is 4 weeks, on average. In some
cases, especially those relating to primary processing, companies had to
fall back on redundancy funds. Employment is substantially stable and
the companies only carry out workforce replacements as dictated by the
turnover, while finding specialised and qualified personnel seems to be
still difficult.Ó As for other areas, this province counts a number of
trade Associations which promote the activities of the different
companies, be them large enterprise or small workshops. The oldest, for
number of years in business, is the 'Consorzio del Mobile di Cantù'.
More recently, the 'Brianza Promotion Centre' is in the spotlight thanks
to the work of its indefatigable promoter, the Mayor of Cabiate, Mr.
Mario Maroni. The present President is Mr. Antonio Corti and the
Secretary office is run by Mrs. Raffaella Agostoni.
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