Boffi|DePadova CEO on NYC Flagship, Riyadh Opening, 2024. Sales Growth

MILAN — It’s been about a decade since Boffi, a Milan-based luxury kitchens business, bought De Padova, a legendary Italian furniture brand that has worked with design icons like Achille Castiglioni, Patricia Urquiola, Nendo, Renzo Piano and Dieter Rams. On Thursday, Boffi|DePadova cut the ribbon on a New York City showroom that represents the culmination of its efforts to show the world the fruits of this marriage, where luxury kitchens, bathrooms, furniture, lighting and high-end partitions stand harmoniously under one roof. In short, a concept of Italian living.

Situated at the heart of the burgeoning NoMad design hub in a three-level, 19,694-square-foot space at 99 Madison Avenue, Boffi|DePadova, is now in a privy position and in one of the largest showrooms in the entire district.

In an interview with WWD, chief executive officer and president Roberto Gavazzi explained that Boffi first arrived in the U.S. in 2000 and was among the very first Italian brands to open in SoHo’s design district. Formerly located at 31 1⁄2 Greene Street, Boffi SoHo expanded its footprint in 2019 to 56 Greene Street in a space that was designated for De Padova. The new space also includes ADL Design, which it acquired in 2021 and which specializes in dividers for the home or office space.

Gavazzi started out as managing director of Boffi in 1989, one year before Piero Lissoni was appointed art director. At the beginning of his career, he was tasked with steering the firm through its first phase of internationalization and was later at the helm amid its takeover of the furniture business Fernando and Maddalena De Padova started in 1956. Here, Roberto Gavazzi discusses how the company is charging ahead as a global brand.

WWD: Boffi has had a retail presence in New York City since 2000. Actually Boffi, when it was solely a kitchens brand, was one of the first Italian brands to open in SoHo, which after the takeover was followed by the De Padova opening in 2019. What was behind the decision to move to Madison Avenue?

Roberto Gavazzi: Since De Padova arrived and became part of the group in 2015, we wanted to group everything together because we had separate showrooms in the various cities before then. So the new Madison Avenue store will replace the Greene Street store, which will be closed. We did the same thing in London and Paris where we had multiple stores and now the strategy is for Boffi and DePadova to blend harmoniously under one roof.

WWD: You mentioned that the U.S. is one of your top markets with flagships in Chicago, Denver, Georgetown in D.C., Los Angeles and Miami. Geographically what markets are main drivers for sales?

R.G.: One third of our sales are generated in the U.S. Another third, is generated in Europe and then another 25 percent comes from Italy. The remaining portion is generated in Asia and the Middle East.

WWD: The U.S. is your biggest market. How do you feel about the Trump tariffs?

R.G.: These duties are a nuisance, however, there is nothing similar in terms of furniture production in the U.S. so we are not in direct competition with American producers…thank goodness. It’s not likely that there will be tariffs on our products — it’s more likely that they will be tacked on to food or pharmaceutical products. And of course they are certainly disadvantageous but not enormously so. In any case I think that in the slightly higher end of the market will have an easier time defending itself from duties.

WWD: How can you promote brand awareness in the U.S., where Italian designers and brands have yet to become a household name?

R.G.: Brand awareness is achieved through years and years of history and presence in the market. We have been on the United States market since 1980. We started with Boffi in New York and from 2000 onward we began to open in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in Washington, in Miami then in Denver, then [with studios] in San Diego then in Houston then in San Francisco and we have covered the whole market. In an important city like New York, it’s important to have a presence on an important design promenade so potential customers and experts can experience the brand and presentation for themselves. In one of the most important American cities, brand awareness is created within a limited but important circuit of architects, of people who have a certain taste and who therefore frequent this world and who know who the best actors are in the business.

WWD: What sort of strategic efforts are in place to promote the brand among these “actors” in the business?

R.G.: We also go looking for them, in the sense that we do a lot of web business, presentations and activities that we do at architecture studios or at our stores. We bring the architects and designers together and we put them together with the most important VIP customers…those who seem closest to our taste. We also invite them to our store for chef demonstrations and other convivial events.

WWD: How is Boffi|DePadova performing in the Middle East? Will you open in any other capital cities like Riyadh?

R.G.: We’re planning to open in Riyadh in 2026. We have always been in Dubai and from Dubai we sell throughout the Middle East. It’s a very interesting market and there is a lot of development. We are already working on projects from Dubai for Riyadh [amidst Vision 2030] but not only. We also have project in Jeddah and big projects along the Red Sea.

WWD: You are a private company but how are sales performing?

R.G.: 2022 was very good, then there was a year of general decline [2023] for the furniture sector, which as a whole fell by 4 percent in general but we grew by 5 percent. In 2024, we posted revenue growth of 2 percent, versus a 4 percent decline in the wood furnishings sector. Revenues were approximately 124 million euros.

WWD: How have sales performed for furniture in January and what markets performed best? 

R.G.: January saw the highest sales in the APAC area, which performed better than January 2024, followed by the EMEA area and, of course, America in terms of sales.

WWD: What macroeconomic themes are important for the industry in 2025?

R.G.: The costs of raw materials, the global stability during this time of uncertainty, the interest inflation are among the most important themes.

WWD: In terms of design talent, Piero Lissoni has been your art director for decades and Boffi and DePadova have worked with the best in the business like Patricia Urquiola to Naoto Fukasowa and even fashion designer Paul Smith. Are you scouting new names?

R.G.: We try and work with the same designers as much as possible but we have several new ones like David Lopez Quincoces.

WWD: What was it like to jump from kitchens as the Boffi CEO to the CEO and president of a full home company?

R.G.: What started as a small kitchen company became a large kitchen company and then it bought a small home furnishings company and it became a large company. We went from doing kitchens to also becoming experts in wardrobes and entering in international markets. De Padova was a little smaller than Boffi but by building brand awareness and our international distribution we were able to acquire other companies to make this name known all over the world so that BoffiIDePadova would become synonymous with the complete home.