Centenarian style

Tile and flooring producer Pavimenti Fogazza has entered the Polish market through Warsaw-based retailer KIM, the exclusive dealer of its products. The family-run company, which has over 100 years of experience at its craft, decided to enter Poland after establishing operations in Russia, Germany, Spain and Hungary. Fogazza is one of the largest players in the handmade-articles segment of the Italian market.

"We feel that it is the right moment for us to offer Polish customers our up-market products. As luxurious residential projects are mushrooming around the country, we are offering products which are not being produced in Poland anymore due to their high costs," Massimiliano Marchese, Fogazza's representative in Poland, told WBJ.

"We are also considering the opening of stores in other major cities, such as Kraków, Gdańsk and Poznań, and are also hoping to expand in other CEE countries," Marchese added.

The company's strategy in Poland is not focused exclusively on luxurious residential projects. Fogazza is looking to collaborate with the city authorities on the renovation of public buildings of historical importance as well as old houses and castles. A similar major undertaking has been the renovation of Teatro Massimo in Palermo, one of the largest opera houses in Europe.

The company's management board believes that the high price of handmade tiles and floor coverings are not going to impact the number of customers.

"Polish customers have become quite demanding and, in the segment in which we work, price is less important than the quality of the product," Fogazza's Marchese concluded.

Mladen Petrov