Molteni to Expand E-commerce, Retail Network in 2023
MILAN — High-end furnishings and designs business the Molteni Group has big plans, centered around its e-commerce business, flagship store openings and more.
The company’s macro strategy involves strengthening its e-commerce and premium digital services by boosting the direct-to-consumer path and digital brand image, constantly improving digital touch points and shopping experience in stores.
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“The view is no longer omnichannel, but one channel — a preferential channel for the consumer regardless of where they are located. E-commerce and premium digital services will play a crucial role in this,” Molteni Group said.
Its new Molteni&C e-commerce platform, which started as a pilot project in the U.S., is showing promising results. This will be rolled out in other international markets over the course of 2023.
Molteni Group, a family-run leader in high-end furnishings and design, said its consolidated 2022 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 25 percent compared with 2021. In a statement released earlier this week, the company said in 2023 it will focus on e-commerce business expansion, flagship store openings and the contract business.
Home to luxury home furnishings and kitchens brand Molteni&C and office furnishings and bespoke projects firms UniFor and Citterio, Molteni Group confirmed its sales rose of 25 percent to 460 million euros in 2022, a figure first released to WWD in April. The company added that 80 percent of sales in 2022 were from exports.
The Northern Italy-based company is helmed by managing director Marco Piscitelli and the descendants of Angelo Molteni, the group’s founder, who started the company in 1934, and was also a key figure in the inception of Salone del Mobile in 1961.
In 2022, overall, Molteni&C saw its revenues climb 26 percent to 304 million euros. Its EBITDA rose 36 percent as the company opened 12 Molteni&C flagship stores in 2022. There are an additional 24 stores planned for 2023. All together, that would bring the total of its Molteni&C stores to 120 single-brand stores worldwide. Cities including Frankfurt; Belgrade, Serbia; Mumbai; Melbourne, Australlia, as well as countries such as Singapore, Panama and Mexico will see upcoming openings in the near term.
Molteni&C boasts a vast retail network with monobrand flagship stores in more than 90 different countries, including major cities like London, New York, Milan, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles and Barcelona.
At the 61st edition of Salone del Mobile, the company unveiled designs from its new Molteni&C|Outdoor division with updated works by the late Italian design and architect maestro Gio Ponti, whose exclusive reproduction rights for most of the furnishings are held by Molteni Group through an agreement with the architect’s heirs. Artist Vincent Van Duysen also re-envisaged the famed Palinfrasca couch first designed by legendary Molteni designer Luca Meda in the ‘80s.
Across the board, furnishings companies are benefiting from a boom in the contract segment and international projects in booming metropolises like Dubai and Miami. Molteni Group said its own large international projects saw a rise in traditional retail, hospitality, educational and residential sectors, contracts for offices and the marine sector.
Projects of note included the monumental National Library of Israel designed by Herzog & de Meuron in Jerusalem, the Mandarin Oriental in Lucerne and the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Another special project involved the important multi-year agreement with Formula1, for which Molteni&C became the official furniture supplier of the F1 Garage Suite, furnishing the exclusive hospitality areas at 11 Grand Prix in different regions.
“We are a close-knit family that maintains a dynamic and flexible company with quick, fluid decision-making processes, ideal in this turbulent international environment. I am particularly proud of the third generation, which works together with synergy, preserving the obsession for quality within the company DNA and culture,” Molteni Group president Carlo Molteni said.
Geographically, the U.S. and China are among the family-run company’s top markets.
In April, the company said 2023 revenues should be in line with 2022 levels, as the central role of the home garners increased importance and demand for custom-made furnishings grows in key geographical areas like China.
“Looking toward the future, our goal is to confirm ourselves as the most complete and dynamic group in high-end design across the three main segments — residential, project and space furnishings, and work, with synergistic, complementary brands,” Piscitelli said.
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