Brands Calligaris

Calligaris was born in 1923 in Manzano, in the province of Udine, as a small artisan laboratory founded by Antonio Calligaris for the production of the MArocca chair, charaterized by a wooden strucure and straw seat, a typical artefact of the area that will later be identified as the "chair district". The cutting and assembly of the wooden parts was mainly entrusted to men, while the seat straw was carried out at home by the women who, in about two hours, were able to complete a session. In the fifties, his son Romeo inherited his father's business which he was able to develop thanks to the post-war economic boom period. In the sixties, the company passed to the third generation Calligaris, to their sons Alessandro and Walter who believed in an automatic rush seat weaving machina bale to weave a chair in a minute and twenty seconds, using synthetic fibers similar to straw. The following years saw a steady growth in the company's production capacity which was transformed into a well-structured industrial reality, the first catalogue was created and exports aborad began. From this moment Calligaris began to distribute its products to the final consumer through resellers located in Italy and Europe.

In October 1986 Alessandro Calligaris assumed the presidency of the company and took full responsibility for the entire company management. In recent years, the company has been experimenting with the most innovative technologies, combining wood with new material: plastic, metals, fabric, methacrylates and glass, up to the inclusion of the ceramics. The following years marked the international development of the company; the first foreign branches were opened, the product range was further expanded. In 2007, the private quity fund L Capital (LVMH group) acquired 40% of the capital of Calligaris S.p.A. but in 2014 the President Alessandro Calligaris bought back all the shares. In 2016, at the Salone del Mobile, took place the important debut of the new CONNUBIA brand, designed for multi-brand retailers and characterized by a wide and qulified offer of tables and chairs. With the launche of CONNUBIA, successfully introduced in all markets where CALLIGARIS was present, the Group continued in its goal of better protecting the selective distribution pf the CALLIGARIS brand and of perfecting the product and communication strategies of the two brands with the aim of completing the reorganization process of the entire range of the Group. In December 2017, the President Alessandro Calligaris began a merger project, acquiring the majority stake (85%) of Ditre Italia, a Treviso-based upholstery company founded by the three brothers De Marchi in 1976. This operation took place as part of a industrial and commercial integration plan launched by the Calligaris Group to expand its 360° presence in the global furniture sector. In October 2018, Alpha Private Equity 7 acquired 80% of the company to strengthen its leadership role worldwide in agreements with the Calligaris family, which continues to hold a 20% stake in the group. The Calligaris Group's strategy of bringing together the main brands in the sector to become a global brand continued with the recent acquisition, in November 2019, of Luceplan: an Italian high quality lighting company.