Wood flooring was just a start, introducing Italian hardwood excellence ITLAS
Market-oriented mindset to innovate a traditional and steady sector
From the far east region of northern Italy, we met a company made and built on wood. Itlas keeps innovation and sustainability at heart, starting from wood flooring and restlessly expanding in new markets, with no fear to carry on a daring green vision, representing a noble example for the whole industry.
A personal story
With a little more than 30 years of history, Itlas is an italian excellence for high quality and sustainable wood for interiors, with a 100% Made in Italy production offering a vast choice of hardwood floorings, claddings and ceilings, and more recently developing furniture pieces and decor items too.
“Family-ran business is the only kind of business we know, this leads to great benefits like a quick decision making process, which makes us a fast and dynamic company. We all share the same vision for this company and this enables us to build it one step at a time” reports Itlas on their website.
Itlas was founded in 1988 by Patrizio Dei Tos, who currently serves as CEO of the family ran company, who bought with his father an old sawmill in Veneto, northern region in Italy home of large forests and varied tree species.
The business focused its initial efforts on pre-finished interior wood flooring, which was quite an innovative product at the time. “Tavole del Piave was a very original product: the choice of wood included the knot and unique material finishes represented the trends of the time.”
“The first product that helped us differentiate from mass market was the triple layer Tavole del Piave. The patented 3 layer wood flooring gained great success with its large size and impressive thinnes of 16mm, the choice of woods including knots and the unique material finishes which represented the trends of the time. Moreover, since the very beginning we manufactured sustainable products, and we bring forward this commitment until today.”
Pledging to an environmentally conscious vision, Itlas worked hard to obtain numerous official certifications throughout the years, such as:
- the Forest Stewardship Council®
- the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification™
- CLASS A+ French VOC Label on all of its wood floorings, the company expands towards new markets beyond flooring.
Expanding towards new markets
The second line that is introduced is called 5 Millimetri, wood cladding for residential surfaces, floors, walls or ceilings. An impressively thin second skin applied on existing surfaces, easily transformed and restyled with a single layer of solid oak or birch plywood wood, and a great chance to gain significant improvements in energy efficiency thanks to radiant heating systems.
“The decision to develop new product lines is always lead by market demands. For instance, Wooden Cladding 5.5 addresses the need of renovating spaces where thickness can become an issue and traditional cladding products cannot be used.”
The collaboration with Marco Casamonti and Studio Archea beginning in 2013 opens to a new market for Itlas: solid hardwood furniture and interior decor items are presented with the collection “I Massivi” featuring benches, stools, tables, chairs and bookcases.
New sinergies are developed the following year with renowned architects and designers like Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas, Claudio Silvestri, Adolfo Natalini, Pietro Carlo Pellegrini and Mario Botta, to expand the interior collection and enter another market segment: “Collezione Bagno” is born to bring the warmth of hardwood in bathroom spaces through a vast collection of furniture pieces.
The range of cabinets, shelves, seatings and tops is a great integration to modern interiors especially when combined with the most traditional lines of the company, accompanying the hardwood floor detail.
Itlas’ commitment to the environment
Itlas keeps sustainability at heart, using only certified wood for all of its products and using eco friendly processes of production and sourcing, as well as promoting influential environmental initiatives. In 2010, the new extension of production facilities was completed with the installation of an impressive photovoltaic system counting 4.172 panels on its roof.
One other great example of this commitment to a green vision, is the product line “Assi del Cansiglio”, the three-layer line of wood flooring planks developed by Itlas collaborating directly with the public body supervising the forests of Veneto.
The company decided to support the forests of Cansiglio after the severe thunderstorm devastation, pledging to purchase the fallen beech trees at full market price and turn them into premium planking to be used for flooring, dropped ceilings and cladding.
Looking at the future
“These days is impossible to predict what will happen 15 years from now, the market is constantly changing, technology sped things up. Our direction is set, we will maintain our commitment to produce sustainable products. We aim at turning green all extra materials, such as packaging, to make our company a benchmark for circular economy.”
Itlas is not planning to sit back in 2019: they are setting up a new production hub in Pordenone for Labor Legno Group, representing a big investment and growth opportunity in terms of business lines and expansion of the customer base. On the retail side the big news concerns the design capital, with Itlas opening doors to its own showroom space in the center of Milan.
