Lombardy's locomotive suffers and bets on safe markets

It is flexing. And yet Lombardy's furniture design confirms itself as one of the most structured and relevant manufacturing chains in the country, in terms of production concentration and international projection capacity, with an operating centre of gravity in the Assolombarda Quadrilateral, which includes the provinces of Milan, Monza and Brianza, Lodi and Pavia.

According to calculations by the Assolombarda Research Centre, more than 3,000 local units and almost 20,000 employees are concentrated in this area, accounting for about 40% of the entire regional sector, which has a total of almost 7,500 local units and about 50,000 employees, and 8% of the national total, where the sector has almost 40,000 local units and 235,000 employees.

Within the Quadrilateral, Monza and Brianza and Milan clearly emerge as the production and strategic core of the chain. Monza and Brianza, with more than 1.6 thousand local units and almost 12 thousand employees, confirms itself as the main manufacturing hub, while the capital, with 1,200 local units and 6,300 employees, strengthens its role in the functions with the highest added value, including design, services and international relations.

On the foreign markets front, the Quadrilatero expresses a largely dominant share even if 2025 saw it slow down compared to the previous year (-1.8 per cent). Exports from the Brianza furniture design district - as Intesa Sanpaolo points out - reached 2.7 billion, equal to over 50% of the Lombardy total and 15% of the national figure of 16.1 billion. The 2025 trade balance (6.9 billion euro current, 83% of the sector balance) of the Monza-Brianza district is 1.9 billion.

According to the Assolombarda Study Centre, the geography of Lombard design exports shows a consolidated presence in the main advanced markets. The USA is the top destination with 12% of the total, followed by France (11%) and Germany (7%), while China and Switzerland both account for 6%. Overall, these five countries absorb 40% of the furniture design exports coming from this area.