Tonino Lamborghini has created an all-round lifestyle concept for its own brand. But alongside Icon accessories and the Home segment, Hospitality is certainly an essential part of the company’s core business; sector that today sees the ‘brand of the Bull’ engaged in a growth and expansion strategy that is redefining the corporate business model.
New strategic partnerships, a turnover in retail that reached 400 million euro in 2017, a five-year plan that foresees new openings of residential communities and luxury brand buildings in Asia and the Middle East: this is the company’s programme, one that has been able to create a “lifestyle experience brand” drawing inspiration from its own DNA. We discussed this with Tanya Byls, the company’s Chief Operating Officer – Hospitality & Real Estate Development.
How has Tonino Lamborghini come closer to the real estate and hospitality world, and how has this activity developed over the years?
Tonino Lamborghini has reinvented the concept of hospitality with the “Hospitality” project, creating a world of style, culture, art and exclusive services. 5-star hotels, cafés, restaurants, lounges, residences and branded apartments-hotels: the locations perfectly represent the brand’s vision, which is bringing forth Italian passion and spirit through places where Italian style is expressed throughout its explosive vitality, creativity, beauty and high quality.
The Tonino Lamborghini Hospitality project was initially established with branded café and restaurant projects offering an Italian-style experience, starting from the selection of our Italian branded products such as our Coffee, Energy Drinks, Wines, Vodka. At the same time, for many years our company has developed the Tonino Lamborghini Home line with distinctive furniture and interior accessory collections that over the years has become a true total living system.
What can we expect from the company’s development in the hospitality sector?
Real estate is the new frontier of luxury, and in 2018 the most challenging projects for our brand were the projects linked to this sector. We have developed a concept of buildings and an entire brand community, both for residential and commercial purposes.
Through a very strict development plan, in the next 5 years we intend upon bringing our projects to highly strategic territories by entering new markets where our identity will be represented and shared. Further developing the range of accessories related to Italian living, we plan to expand the Tonino Lamborghini Home collection, which will be inserted in synergy with the other accessories of the brand in our bespoke projects.
Ideal partners are international investors/developers interested in a high added value brand to further enrich and enhance the scope of their real estate or hotel project. We stress that the advantage of having a brand for real estate projects is represented by the added value of the brand, which translates into an increase in the selling price of the housing units and therefore in greater profits in a much shorter time. For buyers, the brand is a guarantee of the solidity of the project and responds to the desire for a living style with high quality finishes, advanced home automation and bespoke services. In the case of hotels, the brand guarantees greater identity and visibility and consequently, also the occupancy rate and the ADR will increase.
Who is the target you are directed toward? What are your reference markets?
We want to offer the international real estate market a proposal for premium apartments dedicated to high-end customers, investors or buyers looking for exclusivity and quality in a very luxurious environment. The reference markets remain China, Dubai and more generally the Gulf States, emerging countries such as India and all of South-East Asia.
For our Business and Boutique Hotels and Real Estate projects we focus on the metropolises, the residential contexts most linked to business or fashion areas; for the Tonino Lamborghini Resorts & Villas we are orienting ourselves more towards exclusive destinations dedicated to resorts, relaxation and immersion in exceptional natural settings.
How does the company work in the design?
The business model is generally in the form of a trademark License with Royalties; in some cases joint ventures have also developed, especially for more strategic and highly visible projects.
However, our company does not supply only the brand, but an actual productive and value ecosystem. We offer interior design solutions and act as general contractor for the furnishings and interior design solutions of all the apartments or hotel rooms. For external architecture, on the other hand, we find ad hoc solutions with our partners and architects based on the client’s wishes or budget. The final concept must always be studied to integrate with the place, with the city and with the country of origin, respecting the characteristics and prerogatives of the local culture, the native aesthetics, but with an inevitable touch of Italian style. Therefore, unique locations are born, such as the Tonino Lamborghini Library Hotel in Suzhou, which stands on an antique library and bases its entire concept on the Chinese value of education and wisdom.
How do you translate the goal of offering a lifestyle experience brand?
The Hospitality project was born with the intention of offering a certain Italian feeling, style, culture and aesthetics. Above all, we sought to give an immersive experience in the brand, because – as our President Lamborghini likes to repeat – we are not a company in the hotel sector, but we can offer something different from all the others. We have a STORY to tell and a DREAM to offer. The dream of being able to come into contact with the myth of the Lamborghini family, a story that speaks of resourcefulness, determination, love of beauty, creativity and innovation, but also of Italian spirit, with restaurants or cafés and stylish details, all of it in an environment refined up to every last detail, where one is able to feel like they are at the centre of attention.
China was your starting point: what is your presence in the area today? What are your current projects there?
We started in China with three hotels (the “Tonino Lamborghini Library Boutique Hotel” in Suzhou, the “Tonino Lamborghini City Center Hotel” in Kunshan, the “Tonino Lamborghini Lake Side Hotel” in Huangshi) and numerous projects are in the pipeline for next 5 years in Asia, for example in Thailand, in the Philippines or on the island of Saipan, and in particular in the Chinese territory in Chengdu, Hangzou, Xuzhou, Huangshan, Yixing, Taihu Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Wuxi and Xi’an.
From China to the Emirates: how will the Tonino Lamborghini Residences Dubai project develop? How will you integrate the three different cultures into a single experience?
Under the vision of “One belt, one road” (a Chinese strategic initiative aimed at promoting the economic development of the Asian region with infrastructure, development and industrial projects and cultural cooperation between countries), Tonino Lamborghini Residences Dubai is a special combination of: Chinese vision (technology, smart community and smart living), Italian style (design and craftsmanship), Emirate spirit (Dubai as Future City). 10,000 housing units will be designed with the concept design and furnishings of the Tonino Lamborghini Home line that includes furniture, ceramics, and accessories for the home and office. The project will also see the creation of branded restaurants and cafés, gyms, spas, flagship or mono-brand stores for a total of 43 hectares of space, without forgetting that 40% of it will be green spaces. We want to create a new total living concept in Dubai for an international clientele, particularly for Arab and Chinese guests.
