Today, we turn 14!
Founded in 2008 with many ambitions, concerns, passions and enthusiasm overflowing by two brothers Gianfranco and Dino Bianchi, Italian Atelier has experienced 14 years of operation and development in the exclusive interior design market. For more than a decade, what Italian Atelier has been, is going through and will be is a long, meaningful and memorable story about a special business, with special missions and values created.
14-year journey affirming the reputation and position of luxury interior design
A meaningful historical story about an interior design business named Italian Atelier originated in the beautiful town of Tuscany, Italy. Born into a family that owns 3 sofa manufacturers in Italy and was an important supplier of the UK in the 20th century, Gianfranco Bianchi from a young age has cultivated an interest and passion with exclusive personalized design, furniture and lifestyle.
Choosing Asia-Pacific market as the official development site was also a decision that confirmed the distinct strategic vision of Italian Atelier. In the 2000s, although Asia was still a relatively unremarkable market and not many big names decided to invest money, Bianchis clearly saw the development potential and great strength of this place. Therefore, although starting from Italy, the two brothers decided to focus on this continent. They spent a lot of time and energy researching the market, finding potential customers and identifying the small goals they need to achieve in order to gradually reach the mission and expectations set from the beginning.
14 years of hard work, Italian Atelier with excellent management and leadership has got many remarkable achievements. We have built a solid career platform in Asia-Pacific, become the exclusive partner of 30 famous global interior design brands: Armani/Casa, Missoni, Poltronova, Chateau d ‘Ax, Paola Lenti,…, carried out more than 400 projects, notably becoming a supply partner for Restaurant Rêver in Guangzhou, China or Lodha Groups’ World One Tower in Mumbai, India.
In addition, we also purchased the CRM system of Salesforce – which made us one of the first luxury furniture agencies in the world to do so, also owned over 20,000 accounts and 06 global offices in Milan, Pistoia, Shanghai, Mumbai, Indonesia and Ho Chi Minh City. Besides, our representatives have participated in many important events of furniture design in the world. These achievements that are “talkable” have confirmed the quality, position and efforts to realize the goal during the past years of Italian Atelier: Bringing out to the world luxury, quality and perfection.
14 years of accompanying, leading and witnessing the transformation of Italian Atelier, Mr. Gianfranco Bianchi shared: “I am extremely proud to have founded and run the Italian Atelier for the past 14 years. We have operated entirely on net profit, no debt. Many big customers in Bangkok or Taiwan confirm that Italian Atelier is “the best agency in this field”. No other direct competitor has such a beautiful, professional portfolio and is available in so many countries like us. Human resources is also a bright spot when most of them have more than 10 years of experience.”
“While other furniture agencies usually only represent 3-4 brands, we have been the exclusive partner of more than 40 brands around the world, in which renowning brands like Armani/Casa and Missoni Home. They have very high standards and we are qualified to work with them. Almost all brands praise us, and every day we receive invitations to cooperate from 1-2 brands in the world. Although things are becoming more and more difficult, especially after the Covid 19 pandemic, Italian Atelier still overcomes and continues to expand,” said Mr. Bianchi about the long journey of “changing flesh” of Italian Atelier in the Asia-Pacific market.
Building a multinational working ecosystem for employees
In addition to building and covering an interior design network with unique values, Italian Atelier also pays great attention to human factors and the working environment. Building a corporate culture in the direction of globalization, when representative offices are present in 5 countries with a team of employees from many different nations, Italian Atelier successfully spreads the spirit of work and exclusive interior design inspiration to every corner of the continents.
Talking about working environment throughout 6 offices, the main task must not be to work 8 hours in the office and then return home. Here, you are free to take the initiative and decide the factors related to your work, immersed in the endless passion for beauty and of course, can speak up at any time to express your opinion to further promote the activities and development of Italian Atelier collective. Colleagues from many different cultures also make the working environment globalized, with the views and cultural interference pushed to the highest level.
Talking about the global working environment of Italian Atelier, Elvina Sunarto – our Sales Manager in the Indonesian market, shared: “I enjoy working with the environment of Italian Atelier, where the members have a strong sense of camaraderie and a good work ethic. They are competent, kind, funny and like to get things done. Actually, having a chance to work here helps me get a grasp of professional and business etiquette that isn’t taught in any classroom. With etiquette, it taught me how to act and deal with so many important people in this field. Last but not least, self-confidence, self-esteem, maturity and problem-solving skills also are things that I have got here.”
Agreeing with Elvina, Alex Liu – our Sales Manager in the Chinese market, said: “It is a great experience to work with colleagues from different countries. We have never met each other face to face, but we are communicating freely and we are fighting for one goal together.”
“Working at Italian Atelier also helped me learn a lot. Like before I have never used Teams, Monday, Sharepoint and salesforce in my previous work. Working in this position expanded my view for this furniture industry, and it makes me have a new understanding of our job. I feel proud of introducing and delivering good Italian designs to Chinese consumers, to let them have the opportunity to touch these amazing designs while expressing Italian designers’ philosophy to our clients”. – Alex added.
“In Italian Atelier, I learnt that don’t rush for sale but to build and promote brands to every customer first” – shared by Khalid Shaikh, India-based staff at Italian Atelier.
14 years, a journey not too long but enough for Italian Atelier to build a professional, inspiring working environment, and at the same time a solid launch pad for each individual to have “land” to develop their full potential.
Vision and development direction in the future
Marking more than a decade of operation, Italian Atelier has been and will be dedicating itself to further multiplying the unique values in sophisticated and elaborately designed products.
Talking about the vision and future development direction of Italian Atelier, Jasmine Chau, our CSO & CMO said: “Since 5 years ago, Italian Atelier has oriented to open local offices to cover Asia-Pacific region better, and we have done that, successfully turning Italian Atelier into an organization agency, a global business. The second goal after setting up offices is to properly open showrooms in every office, to support projects and mainly wholesale customers. In addition, we will also systematize in a more professional way such as CRM, ERP to be more suitable for our business. I also look forward to digitizing our platform, to keep up with new technology trends, such as 3D showrooms or more dynamic projects on social media.”
“Finally, I want to define agency furniture and luxury in the most correct way. This is a very important mission and needs to be achieved step by step, not just 1-2 days. At the same time, once again affirming the exclusive position of Italian Atelier in the world.”
Turning 14 years old in the murky early winter days but still full of enthusiasm and spirit, we hope that Italian Atelier will continue firmly on the way to assert its value and position in the field of luxury interior design unique, developpe strongly in both quality and personnel system, also build solid achievements to become a global name when it comes to luxury interior.
Finally, the Italian Atelier family now turns 14!
From the Marketing team of Italian Atelier.
