Natuzzi, zero redundancies and 2026-2028 plan focused on relaunch and reshoring

Zeroing the redundancies announced at the end of December and merging them into one of the two factories scheduled for closure. The Natuzzi dispute is moving forward and at the round table convened by the Region, the Santeramo company has in fact 'updated' the 2026/2028 industrial plan presented to Mimit on 22 December, which had envisaged site closures and 476 redundancies.

At the regional table it emerged that there was a willingness to carry out, in the Matera area, a sort of unification of the production set-up with the relocation of personnel from the Jesce 2 plant to the Jesce 1 plant only 500 metres away. This would not happen automatically, however, and the conditions of this relocation are among the issues that continue to be examined by the company and trade union organisations. The amalgamation would have to include a series of decisions including a revision of the work shifts, so as to remove the causes that make the activity unproductive.

The other step forward concerns the redundancy front. The 476 redundancies announced last December are being reduced to zero. For this reason, the use of redundancy incentives has been confirmed, with the commitment to evaluate the union request to increase the economic indemnity envisaged for the workers concerned on a voluntary basis. There is full agreement on this between the region, the company and the trade unions, namely that the 2026/2028 industrial plan has zero redundancies.

At the table convened by the regional councillor for Economic Development, Eugenio Di Sciascio, reshoring was also discussed, with the company accepting the hypothesis of not interrupting the process of returning production to Italia from Romania and of suspending the business decisions taken at the time, pending the outcome of regional and national measures aimed at containing transformation costs. Access to the available instruments, including the development contract and the measures provided for in Article 4b of Decree-Law 18/2024, will be evaluated, compatibly with the requirements, also through an interlocution with Mimit.

For the Natuzzi group, the issue of overproduction remains, which in any case calls for a production and logistical reorganisation to be tackled with a relaunch plan, and at the table, details were given of the investments planned over the three-year period for 17.5 million euro, 4.5 of which in research and development. Because the market," they say at the Natuzzi headquarters in Santeramo, "you have to serve it with products, and competition is faced with innovative products and a distribution network," such as the one that exists today, made up of 500 single-brand points of sale scattered around the world.