News and events
Face to Face with Nardi # 2
The company’s CEOs, Anna and Floriana Nardi, take stock of the situation at the second online meeting organised with the world sales force and confirm all its planned investments. These include a total overhaul in terms of efficiency and sustainability of the long-established production plant in Via Arso, as well as investments in many moulds for new products. One of these - made of recycled plastic - will be presented at the end of September.
Anna Nardi comments, "After an impressive start to the year, the lockdown in March resulted in a drop in turnover, resulting in -70% in April. We responded by using these two months to develop new commercial and marketing strategies. We launched a new product and created new communication tools. Thanks to these initiatives, to our powerful working group and to all our highly loyal partners worldwide, on re-opening we experienced instant recovery.”
Our performance in June and July exceeded the most optimistic pre-Covid-19 expectations and, with the company continuing to stay open for business in August, Nardi expects to close the year with only a 10% decrease in turnover compared to 2019. Our top three best-selling products include the RIO extensible table (+31% on 2019), the Komodo seating system and the Trill seating collection. Sales of products intended for the contract sector, such as the Atlantico sunlounger, are lower but there are some positive signs for 2021.
The long-standing distinction between the two types of market and the widespread and responsive sales force worldwide have definitely helped recovery: the dominant market is undoubtedly the retail one, but whereas the tourism sector is experiencing a major crisis, the contract sector is also showing numbers that exceed our expectations. Moreover, thanks to selected partners, we have also seen a marked increase in online sales.
Floriana Nardi adds, “We have leveraged our corporate values and communicated them further using digital tools. For now, as we are not able to present our new collections live, we have developed all means of communication in order to involve users in a product experience, albeit virtual. In this respect, we have enhanced our website platform, product videos and investments in advertising - online, offline and on social channels - without forgetting to give considerable support to the re-opened stores of our partners.”