The evolution of a brand that in a few decades became Italy’s largest furniture company: Natuzzi’s devotion to harmony is a lesson to learn and live.

Home of national parks, with a coastline longer than any mainland Italian region, and one of the richest archaeological collections of the country, Apulia is a dreamy land with a typical Mediterranean climate in the south of Italy.

With its colored sofas pink as peach flowers, blue as the Apulian sea, and yellow as sunburned wheat fields, Natuzzi’s DNA can be traced in this beloved land, whose natural imperative would define the brand’s mission: harmony.

From a small Apulian lab to Macy’s, Natuzzi is the story of the Italian sofa that reached Wall Street.

The son of a carpenter, in 1959 Pasquale Natuzzi opened his first workshop, a 95 ft2 space that during the ’70s will gradually become a made in Italy excellence. New headquarters, located in Santeramo since 1973, new artisans and new collaborations, collections that pay homage to the Apulian nature and to the perfect harmony of its elements. 

Pasquale Natuzzi, the lord of the sofas

A huge entrepreneurial intuition determines, within a moderately short time frame, Natuzzi‘s distinctive traits. As Natuzzi specialized in the niche production of upholstered leather sofas with a contemporary style, at the end of the 70’s Pasquale Natuzzi started worrying about the saturation of the Italian market.

The shift takes place in New York, almost by chance. In 1982 the businessman saw at Macy’s an anonymous leather sofa for sale at $3’000 and proposed his products for one-third of the price: by the end of the ’80s, the US market was representing 90% of the brand’s total income.

In a few years, Natuzzi lived an international triumph that culminated in 1993 when the group became the only foreign furniture company to list on Wall Street.

Curious to know more iconic Italian brands? Don’t miss Brand Story – Artemide.

A commitment to ethic and nature

From 2007, the economic crisis and the pressure of new foreign competitors forced Natuzzi to rethink its internal organization, with choices that have always been guided by the attachment to its labor force, social responsibility, and respect of the beautiful territory in which the brand is born. Natuzzi manufactures renewable sources and wood from forests that regenerate themselves every 4 years.

Living by Natuzzi

The journey of the brand took Natuzzi to design every single element to match the entire home in harmony, combining style and function, with the finishing of the rugs matching the colour of the leather, or the lacquer of the wall unit.

During the last 20 years, Natuzzi has been working on the repositioning of the brand and to extend the production to different fabrics and furniture for the living room and the bedroom.

Designers by nature

Natuzzi has always worked with artists that share its passion for harmony and Italian nature. Designer of the famous ‘ship’ that hosts the American headquarters of the brand, Mario Bellini is also the author of the Torsion table, a sculptural piece inspired by the trunk of the Apulian olive trees.

Marcel Wanders‘ Oceanographer and Agronomist collections confer to their elements a sense of place that comes from the natural beauty of the region, but it is Lovegrove’s Ergo collection to be considered the finish line of Natuzzi’s journey: it looks like a primitive, rural, bed, but it actually is a realization in organic forms of sustainable technologies of the XXI century.

Re-thinking the couch

An Instagram star, a cosmopolitan, free soul, Pasquale Natuzzi Junior, the new generation of the Natuzzi’s family, is working to digitalize the company and Natuzzi‘s shopping experience: consumers able to choose through augmented reality and holographic displays are just the first breeze of a fresh wind of change. Blowing from the Mediterranean, of course.

Find out more about one of the designers who collaborated with Natuzzi to create the Oceanographer and Agronomist collections, don’t miss Design Icons – Marcel Wanders.