01 December 2005

Concentration of industrial and craftsman furniture production in the province of Como

by Pietro Stroppa

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.

To see the names of the companies in the province of Como, please visit our portal: