Haworth acquires Italian furniture maker, adds to Lifestyle Design Group

Haworth acquires Italian furniture maker, adds to Lifestyle Design Group

HOLLAND — Office furniture maker Haworth Inc. has finalized a deal that added yet another high-profile name to its portfolio of international brands.

Through Haworth’s Italy-based Poltrona Frau Group, the Holland-based company said that it acquired Luxury Living Group, an Italian furniture maker and interior design company that produces and distributes high-end furniture in Italy, working under licensing agreements with such brands as Fendi Casa, Bentley Home and Bugatti Home.

Luxury Living Group will now operate through Haworth’s Lifestyle Design Group division, which also features fellow Italian brands like Cappellini, Cassina, Ceccotti and Poltrona Frau. The group also boasts international names like Karakter (Denmark) as well as U.S.-based companies DZine, Luminaire and JANUS et Cie.

“I am honored to welcome Luxury Living Group within our family today and I am proud that they have chosen our group to write a new page of their wonderful history,” Lifestyle Design CEO Dario Rinero said in a statement.

“We will grow together thanks to a large group, we will invest in the territory of new young talent to shape a new, stronger and structured company, never forgetting its origins and founding values.”

Luxury Living Group has a worldwide network of 80 retailers and directly owned stores in Milan, Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

“I am certain that, in this way, we will reach exceptional levels of development and profitability, given the fact that Luxury Living Group’s business model is increasingly topical in a global business where reputation and guarantee of great international brands bring about a competitive edge, further enhanced by the size and know-how of an extraordinary group as Lifestyle Design and Haworth,” Luxury Living Group CEO Renato Preti said in a statement.

Luxury Living Group generated 90 million euros in revenues — about the equivalent of $104 million — and employs a team of 250 people. 

In the weeks leading up to the deal, multiple media reports have indicated that Luxury Living Group has been struggling financially as of late. Yahoo Finance reported that in 2017, the company generated 120 million euros in sales, or approximately $139 million. The report noted that in June, Luxury Living Group petitioned for a composition with creditors, a proceeding in which creditors are asked collectively to take an amount that’s less than what they are owned and split it among themselves. 

Terms of the deal with Haworth were not disclosed.

Haworth is not alone among West Michigan-based office furniture companies in setting its sights on the international market, specifically in Italy. 

This week, Grand Rapids-based Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS) announced it had formed an exclusive relationship with Italian furniture manufacturer Mattiazzi to offer the company’s line of wood furniture through its dealer network in North America, according to a statement.

“Mattiazzi designs are innovative and offer a fresh aesthetic that works well in a range of indoor and outdoor spaces and are easy to clean,” Steelcase VP of Global Marketing Allan Smith said in a statement. 


EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated from its original version.