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LOUIS DE POORTERE RUGS PLACED IN NATUZZI EDITIONS BOUTIQUES
Louis De Poortere's Thierry Flamant, VP Sales America, left, and Leonardo Chimienti, product line manager of the Natuzzi Editions brand, offer a walkthrough of the new partnership.
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HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Italian home furnishings manufacturer and retailer Natuzzi will incorporate Louis De Poortere rugs in worldwide sales outlets of its Natuzzi Editions brand dealers and mono-brand stores, Leonardo Chimienti, product line manager of the Natuzzi Editions brand, told RugNews.com.
"Seeking Natuzzi's partnership for Louis De Poortere rugs was a natural," added Thierry Flamant, VP Sales America for Louis De Poortere. "Both Natuzzi and Louis De Poortere are manufacturers of quality home furnishings committed to style and quality.
"It does help that both our companies are historic in their own right, family-owned, European, and committed to the U.S. and global markets. It is a wonderful partnership. We hope to develop more programs with Natuzzi," Flamant said.
High Point buyers saw the Louis De Poortere rugs in cross-merchandised vignettes, this one featuring Natuzzi Editions' new pairing of cognac and navy blue upholstered pieces with a Mad Men collection Griff rug in gold.
Natuzzi will present four collections crafted by the Belgian rug and broadloom maker, including Fading World, Silver Lining, Mad Men and BoBohemian, to complement the seating and decor of Natuzzi's middle-range brand, Natuzzi Editions, where the typical sofa retails for about $2,000.
Chimienti curated the selection of Louis De Poortere designs that are part of the Natuzzi Editions range from within the rug maker's existing collections, all woven on modified jacquard Wilton looms.
"With the De Poortere rugs, we've created a platform to present our product and emphasize the look, beauty, and harmony we have inside the collection.
"Once we showed these rugs to our sales representatives, they fell in love immediately because they understood the potential behind them," said Chimienti. "The fact that you have a really beautiful presentation encourages sales, so it is actually a part of the business. Our rugs are not only for decoration."
With a total of more than 1,110 sales outlets worldwide, the partnership with Natuzzi is a feather in the cap of the Louis De Poortere. Soft-launched last October in High Point, cross-merchandised rug and furniture settings were then presented by Natuzzi in Belgium, Germany, Milan, Brazil, and Shanghai.
Natuzzi curated a selection of Louis De Poortere rugs to incorporate into its offering, including sophisticated distressed motifs with an overdyed vintage look.
All Natuzzi Editions sales outlets are expected to carry the same SKUs to simplify logistics, with the collection anticipated to be fully rolled out stateside shortly. Natuzzi will stock the core rugs, while Louis De Poortere will handle the remainder.
"In a short time we're going to have all our current galleries and stores in the United States set up with the new rugs," said Chimienti, who is based at the Natuzzi headquarters in Santeramo in Colle, Italy. "Soon. Very soon."
"Rugs help create the environment, but they definitely help sales because of the way the distribution is settled. In the U.S. and all over the world we offer accessories along with our products. Starting from rugs and tables, when we set up a gallery or a store we offer the retailers a coordinated package. This helps us maintain coherency with our strategy, logic, and presentation of the product," he continued.
Natuzzi anticipates the new rugs, to be rolled out across the U.S., will help boost sales. Shown is a Fading World medallion rug woven of cotton chenille.
Indeed, the colors, patterns and international appeal of the De Poortere rug collections are in synch with the finely-honed Natuzzi Editions design aesthetic. "When you look at our products together, they appear to have been designer for each other," Flamant explained.
According to Ellisa Cotrufo, head of design and color for Natuzzi Editions, "Our look is nothing too extreme. We try to stay in the middle, making our designs more comfortable looking. Even color-wise, we're speaking about colors that blend in easily inside your home."
Introduced for the first time in Europe at imm Cologne in January 2016, followed by Salone del Mobile in the spring, the rugs are on point with trends. "As far as I've seen in Cologne and Milan, I think the trend is going toward the worn looks, the flat rugs with no pile that we have selected from De Poortere. At the furniture fairs, it was obvious rug design was trending to things that are easy to clean, easy to manage, and easy to move around from room to room to freshen the look of the home," Cotrufo said.
Natuzzi Editions' new deep green leather colorway debuted at High Point Market following a successful launch at furniture shows in Cologne and Milan. The De Poortere rug is from the Fading World Old Kilim collection.
On display in leather and fabric throughout the High Point showroom were Cotrufo's color picks for 2016. "We find the right products for our look: Our new teal is not too blue, for example. It is more green. Our greige is an American grey with a beige tone. At Cologne and Salone we showed a new deep, dark green and a lighter jade -- a pale green we paired with grey. Cognac and navy are also important. People are looking for color today," she explained.
Shown with a silver grey De Poortere rug, new for 2016 Natuzzi Editions colors cognac and teal perk up a sleek black leather sofa.
Natuzzi introduced a new pale jade colorway in fabric and leather qualities for 2016, and pairs it with pale grey De Poortere rugs.
Motion furniture takes an elegant turn in rich brown leather contrasted with a distressed, no pile Louis De Poortere medallion rug from the Fading World collection.