Hiro Design, minimal and colourful furniture from Verona to Spain and France, then the USA

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - A minimal and colourful style combined with Made in Italy quality. These are the elements on which the Veronese start-up Hiro Design is counting to bring its aluminium furniture to the US and Japan and reach 10 million revenues in 2028. Explaining this in an interview with Radiocor is Ceo Manuele Perlati, who, on the strength of his experience in the family company Penta Systems - specialised in furniture for the B2B market - has decided to found a brand for consumers in 2019.

Due to the increasing focus on home&living and 'a specific online sales strategy', Hiro Design ended 2025 with a turnover of 4 million, an increase of 60%, more than 20,000 orders and 40,000 pieces sold. In the fourth quarter of last year, the start-up's turnover accelerated to EUR 1 million. While on the profitability front, thanks to synergies with Penta Systems and the potential of direct sales via the web, it managed to achieve a 70% contribution margin. With this in mind, Hiro Design is preparing for a 2026 of growth, thanks also to the collaboration with the start-up accelerator OneDay Group. The focus will be on 'retail development' through the first store opened last year in Verona and the showroom opened in Milan. "We then have the potential to open up to the B2B market", which currently accounts for 10% of the company's revenues but has "the potential" to develop, explains Perlati. Hiro Design, however, intends to concentrate above all on 'opening up new foreign markets'.

"We are currently doing very well in Germany," says the manager. "The next step is to approach Spain and then France. The expectation is to "arrive at the end of 2026 with a diversified country package" that weighs in at 20% of revenues (now Italia accounts for 100%). But which above all 'will allow us to define the scenario well up to 2030'. In the meantime, CEO Hiro Design has clear ideas for 2028, the year in which the company aims to reach 10 million in revenues. This threshold is the starting point for "looking, after Europe, at the United States," says Perlati, "a market that we know is very attentive to Italian products, to Made in Italy. Moreover, 'our product embraces many styles, satisfies many tastes'. Even in Asia, then, 'we can have our say,' explains the CEO. "We would like to explore China and Japan in particular, because our style can appeal to these markets also because of issues of simplicity'. For reasons of 'cultural and language barriers', however, the primary destination remains the US.

Among the challenges for international development will be the effects of current geopolitical and trade tensions, such as tariffs or the Middle East war. All factors that, at least for the moment, are not stopping Hiro Design's march. "We are small and still growing well," says Perlati, who acknowledges that the company is, however, "seeing increases in raw material costs". "We are in the order of 20 per cent," he explains, "and we are absorbing that for now. We'll see what happens though. For now we have no drop in demand. Hiro Design's approach to the future is therefore business confident, with several options for growth on the table. "We have set ourselves the goal of reaching 10 million in revenues with our own resources and without external capital,' says the CEO, 'Then we will understand what scenarios will arise. With this in mind, Perlati - who holds 70 per cent of the company's shares, while 30 per cent is do Penta Systems - does not rule out a listing on the stock exchange or at least 'the entry of new shareholders' into the capital. 'When a company needs to attack foreign markets or needs new expertise,' he explains, 'it needs financial resources.