Poltrona Frau in Motion: luxury, craftsmanship and research drive revenues

In Tolentino, in the Poltrona Frau headquarters, they call them "those of the car", those of the car. But they are not just any cars, those that Poltrona Frau In Motion, the division of the Marche-based design group founded forty years ago and which today employs 600 people, some 460 of them in Italia, contributes to making.

In Motion, in fact, supports the design and supplies the interiors for the world's most exclusive cars, thanks to industrial partnerships with companies such as Ferrari, Pagani, Lamborghini, Alpine or Bugatti, but also Jaguar Land Rover, Aston Martin and McLaren. "We also supply high-end interiors for the aviation and yachting sectors, but 95% of our turnover is generated in the automotive sector," explains Giovanni Maiolo, general manager of the business unit of Poltrona Frau (Haworth Lifestyle group), which in 2025 reached around €120 million in revenues, confirming the growth trend that, in the last three years, has recorded a compound average rate of 9%. A further consolidation of turnover is planned for 2026.

"We work in a market niche that is less volatile than other segments and therefore less susceptible to the economic and geopolitical uncertainties of recent years," Maiolo notes. However, these results are also the fruit of the many investments made from 2019 onwards, after the manager's arrival, in two main directions: 'We changed the company's business model to become system suppliers and not mere external subcontractors,' Maiolo explains. 'At the same time, we repositioned our target on a higher level of complexity, focusing on the luxury and customisation sector with high design content.

Choices that have required significant investments in innovation and production growth (an average of 3% of turnover each year) and the creation of teams of experts capable of working alongside partners to develop projects together right from the start, in a completely tailor-made logic. Maiolo also mentions investments in artificial intelligence: 'We are among the sector players that are investing the most in the development of AI for the analysis and support of leather management in production lines.

Innovation that in no way detracts from the high content of craftsmanship that distinguishes Poltrona Frau: "For us, innovation is all the more powerful the better it supports our craftsmen," adds Maiolo. "We are not interested in automation that tends to replace the work of our craftsmen, because this is our added value. The same value that, exactly forty years ago, gave life to the first model with Poltrona Frau interiors, a Lancia Thema 8.32 with a Ferrari engine, born almost by chance thanks to the friendship between Cavalier Franco Moschini (Poltrona Frau's historic chairman from 1962 to 2014) and the lawyer Gianni Agnelli, who wanted the same quality and beauty for his car as he had in his home or office.