Salone del Mobile closes with over 316,000 visitors. Record number of foreign buyers

"The Show is a certainty," says Massimiliano Messino, president of Flou. "We will come out of this fair better than we went in, aware that, even if the market situation is very complex, a good Show can put an entire year's business back on track.

Kartell's stand, an impressive 1,500 square metres, recorded even higher numbers than the 2024 edition, with over 60,000 visitors.

In times like these, moreover, the Show "confirms itself as the best antidote to the market's criticality," says President Maria Porro, recalling the long work behind the scenes and in particular the numerous promotional activities abroad, which have increased buyers from countries such as the United States, Brazil, and China, also compensating for the lack of arrivals from some regions of the Middle East.

 For Claudio Feltrin, president of FederlegnoArredo, the Show is a "healthy bearer of confidence". The companies at the fair "have worked well these days," adds Feltrin, who speaks of a performance beyond expectations for this year's edition.

 "The Show has a duty to be a stable, open and reliable platform," adds Porro. An 'economic and cultural infrastructure' capable of intercepting and interpreting changes in the market and evolving to provide companies with the tools they need to deal with these changes.

 This is demonstrated by the many innovations presented this year, including new formats such as Salone Raritas and the launch of Salone Contract, which will make its debut next year, aimed at that segment of the market (large projects) that more than any other is supporting the growth and competitiveness of the Italian furniture industry.

 Claudio Feltrin also emphasises this aspect: "The market for large projects is one that many Italian companies are already familiar with, but it is a complex, non-repetitive world governed by different rules than retail, and this requires different skills and business models. What has been missing is a platform for all the stakeholders operating in this field to meet and exchange ideas, and our aim is to create an event that meets this need.

It is precisely these innovations that could convince some major furniture brands - which in recent years have left the show to concentrate their presentations in their own showrooms in the city - to return to the fair, benefiting from a new and more specific, targeted formula. This would be a way to really create a system and stem the fragmentation that characterises this sector like so many others in Italian manufacturing and which, in the face of major crises and the enormous challenges posed by the world, are no longer sustainable for our country's economy.

Excellent numbers also for the more than one thousand initiatives of the Fuorisalone. Record admissions for Interni's exhibition-event, "Materiae": 275,000 admissions were recorded at the Statale di Milano, compared to 250,000 last year. At the Brera Botanical Garden over 57 thousand (50 thousand in 2025). At the Audi x Zaha Hadid Architects Portrait saw as many as 170 thousand admissions, against 150 thousand last year. "Materiae" will be open to the public until 30 April at the Statale and the Orto Botanico.