Boffi focuses on retail and strengthens in Asia. New openings in China

It was the new Eldorado for Italian design companies until a few years ago, then the Covid 19 pandemic changed the scenario and China rapidly lost positions in the ranking of the main destination countries for Italian-made furniture, albeit on important values (almost 500 billion euro of exported goods in 2024, FederlegnoArredo data).

And more than the economic difficulties and the slowdown in consumption, what has weighed more heavily - in design as in fashion - is the emergence of many new local brands in recent years. "Very beautiful and very well made," says Roberto Gavazzi, president and CEO of the Boffi-DePadova group, which has just completed a series of important investments in China, with the inauguration of two new single-brand spaces in Wuhan and Shenzhen, each 400 square metres on several levels, and the doubling of the surface areas of the two shops in Beijing and Shanghai. 'There are still a couple of very interesting cities in which we would like to expand, and then we will see, we still want to be cautious,' explains Gavazzi. 'We are following a strategy of dynamic growth, but not overly aggressive. It is a market on which we have high expectations, like the whole of Asia, which plays a key role in our development, but we are aware that competition has become very high'. In a context that is increasingly focused on high-end contemporary design, and therefore favourable to the success of brands such as Boffi and DePadova, "if you want to compete, you have to be at the top, because only there can you still have an appeal, a reason to be bought, and therefore a reason to be there," adds the entrepreneur.

You have to invest a lot, to have very beautiful shops in the best locations, curated by the most renowned architects. And, above all, for a furniture company it is necessary to have not only interesting products, but "a very sophisticated project such as the Way of Living concept that we present in our Chinese shops, which unites our three brands, presenting customers with proposals for making a complete home," says Gavazzi. "Such a complete and articulated project is difficult to replicate, especially in its international distribution, which must guarantee very high levels of brand, service, support and quality.

The group has one of its strengths precisely in retail distribution, which in fact has held up in numbers even in recent years, while vice versa there were also significant drops for the furnishing world in general. In fact, out of a turnover of approximately Euro 127 million reached in 2024, retail accounts for 90-95% of the value, Contract, which in the case of Boffi-DePadova only concerns single projects of high value and quality, not large supplies, has instead seen a contraction in 2025, mainly due to the postponement of some orders, mainly in the United States, which will lead the group's overall turnover to close the year with an overall drop of approximately 4-5%.

On the other hand, the forecasts for 2026 are positive, with a budget predicting growth of 4%, driven mainly by the Asian markets and also by the United States, the leading foreign country in terms of sales, which accounts for about 30% of revenues. "Retail has also held up here, despite the uproar caused by tariffs, which disorientated customers, freezing purchases for a few months," says Gavazzi. "But we are confident that things will settle down: in the USA we are very strong and well organised, with seven proprietary shops.