{"id":20295,"date":"2020-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designdiffusion.com\/2020\/04\/24\/designgoeson-angelo-meroni-president-of-lema-made-in-italy-and-exports\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T13:53:23","slug":"designgoeson-angelo-meroni-president-of-lema-made-in-italy-and-exports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designdiffusion.com\/en\/2020\/04\/24\/designgoeson-angelo-meroni-president-of-lema-made-in-italy-and-exports\/","title":{"rendered":"#Designgoeson: Angelo Meroni, President of Lema, made in Italy and exports"},"content":{"rendered":"

#Designgoeson: Designdiffusion.com talks with Angelo Meroni, President of Lema, about the future of made in Italy furniture after the Covid-19 health emergency<\/h2>\n

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One month has passed since the shutdown of production activities. What is your situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Angelo Meroni<\/strong>: “Lema<\/a> is a company working in both the contract and residential sectors: for this reason, some aspects can be worrying, and others a little less perhaps. The retail sector could actually have some problem, of different kinds<\/strong>. First of all, stores are closed, and each passing day is one more day of closure, with no customers, and therefore with no orders. That said, it is not so obvious that, even if the shops opened, customers would come in and buy. With this situation, the future of furniture stores represents a big question mark indeed<\/strong>. Also because the question is not limited to the opening of shops; one must also consider people\u2019s sentiment. Will they go back to buying furniture right away? After two months of confinement?<\/p>\n

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Such a long closure of stores is an unexpected event, which opens up not very comforting scenarios<\/strong>. Missed takings in a store mean missed takings for a manufacturer, and so on, with the domino effect generating the perfect storm. For this reason, I think that the retail sector is much more at risk than the contract sector. Contract works in a completely different way; it relies on projects. A project can be delayed by six months and those who work in this field are quite used to postponements. As long as the project is realized, there may not be serious consequences. During these weeks, we have continued to work with large architectural firms and developers who have never stopped working. The retail sector, on the other hand, is a question mark, despite the fact that, according to data from January and February, 2020 was going really well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Isn\u2019t China helping you in this moment?<\/h3>\n

China is recovering<\/strong> and fortunately we could ship the furniture for our Beijing flagship store just before the shutdown, so they are completing the fit out. We had planned to open it in this period. Luckily enough, we are receiving some orders from China, so it is a partially positive note. I say \u2018partially\u2019 because China is confirming that the recovery after reopening will be very slow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Read also the other interviews with leading figures from the design world:<\/h3>\n