Natuzzi picks Greensboro, N.C., for flagship store
By Joan Gunin -- Furniture Today, December 24, 2001
GREENSBORO, N.C. — The flagship U.S. store of Italian leather upholstery powerhouse Natuzzi is expected to open here by the October 2002 furniture market.
Ground is set to be broken in April on the company-owned store, to be located in a heavily trafficked retailing area near the intersection of Wendover Avenue and Interstate 40. Construction is expected to take about five months.
Preliminary work will begin in the first quarter of 2002, including completion of design work and submission of certificates for approval.
"Our goal is to open before the October market," said Fred Starr, president and chief executive officer of Natuzzi Americas. "The construction (of the store) will be unique."
Mario Bellini, the famed Italian industrial architect who designed Natuzzi's West Commerce Avenue showroom in High Point, will help create the one-story Greensboro store.
"We want to have a consistent, strong, consumer-focused image, and this store will give us a way to do it," Starr said. "It will be an extension of the brand at retail, done in a creative way, as only a flagship store can do."
The store will serve as a working laboratory, "where we can apply new creative concepts and measure consumer response," he said.
In addition, the store will be used to offer Natuzzi retailers ideas on presentation, and also sales training.
"We want to do all we can to help our retailers become more successful," Starr said.
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