Kartell, a network of skills for the contract sector

The vibrant world of Kartell injected a hit of colour and light into the 40th edition of the Milanese event dedicated to the HoReCa industry.
IFDM met up with Lorenza Luti, the marketing manager at Kartell, which will celebrate its 70th birthday in two years’ time and now sees the contract industry as central to its mission.

“Retail, e-commerce and contract are the three pillars around which Kartell is building its present and planning for the future,” she explained. “Contract is no longer just an opportunity to see a Kartell piece as the cherry on a cake prepared by others, but allows us to have a presence during the design process. More and more often, we’re being asked to help incorporate a Kartell-esque vibe into spaces.”

In terms of the brand’s working relationship with architecture and interior design studios, Luti stressed that “as designers get to know us better, they’re able to grasp just how iconic Kartell products are and sit down around a table to share ideas and design spaces.”

E-commerce and retail (the brand has over 130 flagship stores, 250 shop-in-shops and 2500 resellers around the world) complement Kartell’s contract division, while “being an industrial-sized organisation in a world that is almost exclusively focused on the bespoke side of things has its advantages, including from an economic perspective – the price-quality ratio of our products is really attractive for designers”, according to Luti.