BBB Italia interviewed by Ranieri

If you can't renovate your home, try editable products

How BBB Italia gives carte blanche to the final user.  

Turning a problem into an opportunity seems to be an overused motto these days, but for BBB Italia, it's a lucid picture of last year. A year less impactful than expected without stopping the company's growth, despite the apparent transformations related to well-knows issues. "We closed 2020 with a positive turnover in the wake of the results brought about by our restructuring, which started three years ago. If anything, the positive results we achieved were slightly lower than what we expected if we did not have to deal with the pandemic." explains the architect Michele Franzina, art director of BBB Italia. 

The impact of the restrictions is, therefore, a fact. According to Franzina, such an impact has not affected the production side. "We have never had difficulty in finding raw materials or in relations with our subcontractors. However, we saw an evident, yet contained, decline in demand ". This was due to the absence of trade fair events both in Italy and around the world. "The cancellation of the latest edition of the Salone del Mobile – a few weeks after the appointment – significantly weighed down the front of contacts with new customers and markets. And we also had to do without our usual global promotion and dating activities." 

From this point of view, e-commerces represent a guarantee, thus reinforcing the importance of collaborating with Design Italy.

An assurance that has proved to be valid against this year's limitations, but which is now even more critical. "E-commerces are an amazing opportunity for the design industry," Franzina explains. “Usually, online purchases still require a little act of faith from the buyers who must buy remotely. This is a little less true in the world of design as the products sold online are very well-known".

And on the product front? "Here too, the pandemic has represented in a certain sense an opportunity", continues the art director of BBB Italia. The transformation of our daily life has triggered the need for quick and innovative solutions for our homes. Because it's almost impossible to renovate our homes fully, we came up with a series of editable solutions to improve our daily life". These products are characterized by a fixed configuration that cannot be modified. However, what can be changed is their destination, depending on the use chosen by the final user as in the creation of a new chair. 

BBB Italia also entered new markets through the reinterpretation of the design proper to products linked to our new normality, such as the panels used as room dividers.

Finally, a look at a new trend – which meets an inconceivable reduction in budgets. "We are radically renewing old products while preserving the original idea, which over time has often become a real design icon", concludes Franzina.