Pasquale Natuzzi

 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Natuzzi Group, was very young when he started his career. The son of a cabinet-maker, at just 19 years of age he opened a workshop in Taranto with three collaborators, producing sofas and armchairs for the local market. In 1962 he moved to Matera where he began to gain commercial experience, giving him in-depth knowledge of the difficulties and mechanisms of distribution. In 1967, still in Matera, Pasquale Natuzzi returned to his first love: the production of sofas and armchairs, this time on an industrial scale. In 1972 he founded Natuzzi Salotti S.r.l. One year later, following a fire that completely destroyed the Matera factory, Pasquale Natuzzi decided to relocate production to Santeramo in Colle (Bari – Italy), which is the current headquarters of the Group.

 

At the beginning of the ‘80s, during a trip to the USA, Pasquale Natuzzi intuitively spotted an opportunity to carry out a radical change of direction: “democratising” the leather sofa, once a product for an elite niche. In 1985 Natuzzi Upholstery Inc. was established, based in New York, a company especially designed for the needs of its North American clients. The successes achieved in the USA, confirmed by the flotation on Wall Street in May 1993, drove Natuzzi to conquer other markets, mainly in Europe and the Far East, where the Group confirmed its leadership within a short space of time.In 1998, further confirmation of the Group's strong ties with the American market was given by the inauguration in High Point (North Carolina) of a futuristic-looking building, designed by the architect Mario Bellini, housing the offices of Natuzzi Americas, with over 60 employees and a large showroom measuring 8,000 square metres.