Brand Spotlight: Pedrali

Last month our team travelled to Pedrali in Italy with friends from our architecture and design network. Pedrali is an award-winning family run business that manufactures furniture entirely in Italy. Combining tradition and innovation, whilst reducing their impact on the environment, they produce functional and versatile designs.

We spoke to the design team at Pedrali to find out more.

Pedrali is a family business. Has that been important to its growth and success?

The history of our company is rooted in 1963, when Mario Pedrali founded a craft workshop in Brescia, where he began to produce his first outdoor collection of wrought iron seats. In the 1970s, he embarked on a journey that led him to collaborate with Italian and foreign architects and designers, specialising in the contract sector. Creative inspiration and progressive vision laid the foundations for what would later become, an enterprise employing as many as 300 collaborators under the leadership of his children Monica and Giuseppe.

In 2017, the success of this family-run business was rewarded with the prestigious ​“Olivetti Entrepreneur”prize. Mario Pedrali’s legacy lies in the idea that entrepreneurs have a social responsibility to create value for the local territory and the target community.

How important is it to you that your products are manufactured only in Italy?

Our philosophy has always been to support the value of Italian companies, a heritage which, while historically rooted, must continuously be supported and nurtured. This is the reason for the decision to produce every component internally, at our two production sites, Mornico al Serio and Manzano. The first produces metal, plastic and upholstered furniture pieces, while the second produces wooden furniture. The aim is to guarantee customers a high level of quality, ensured by comprehensive controls across the entire production chain.

What do you do as a manufacturer to reduce the impact of your furniture on the environment?

Every product made from wood is FSC® C114358 certified. Since 2018 we have been using water-based coatings composed mostly of plant-derived resins for wooden collections.

In 2020 we launched first collections made from recycled polypropylene, 50% from plastic material post-consumer waste and 50% from plastic material industrial waste.

The company’s system certifications include UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 for its quality management system and UNI EN ISO 14001:2015 for its sustainable environmental management, which is extended to every phase of the production process.

Examples of recent operations aimed at improving environmental impact: — 

• Installing more than 3000 photovoltaic panels, producing enough energy to cover the company’s energy needs.
• To reduce energy consumption during the cold season, the hot water produced in plastic materials moulding processes is recovered and ducted into the other production departments to heat them.
• During the warmer season, a system composed of five cooling towers supports the chillers in lowering the water temperature of the moulds.
• Pedrali also converted the lighting system of all indoor and outdoor plants to LED.

How have advances in technology helped to improve the design and production of your furniture?

We are an industry 4.0 company and our factories are equipped with interconnected machinery. Every year, a significant part of the company’s turnover is invested in innovation, technology, as well as digitised production.

Technologically advanced machinery and process automation ensure faster production, internal handling, and delivery, as well as observance of delivery times. This results in greater flexibility in meeting customer requirements, while maintaining focus on product quality.

Why do you think your products work so well in a variety of settings – workspace, hospitality, residential?

In recent years, the line between these sectors is getting blurred. Furniture – which plays a primary role in defining them — is increasingly hybrid, versatile and multitasking, Thus, we can find in office settings furniture which used to be selected for hospitality or residential projects in the past.

Our goal is making good-looking and well-done products. Quality and sustainability are crucial. In terms of style, we prefer clean, organic, natural lines that can seamlessly adapt to different contexts, periods in time and trends. Also, in terms of sustainability products must be aesthetically timeless in order to last more than just one season or trend, like in fashion.

Where do you get inspiration from for new products?

The objects on the market are numerous and very varied. Deciding to insert another one implies a conscious and responsible choice on the part of the company, which first identifies a market segment to cover or a need to fill.

Our products are made in partnership with Italian and international designers. These are well-known names, some of whom designed entire collections of products for us: Claudio Bellini, Robin Rizzini, Jorge Pensi, Patrick Jouin, Odo Fioravanti, Patrick Norguet, Eugeni Quitllet, just to mention a few.

The selection of projects is managed internally, by our R&D department. They may come from an unsolicited application by a designer, or from a specific request from the company itself.

Are there any design trends that are currently influencing your designs?

Among the main trends, an increase in interest in outdoor furniture for our homes, outdoor spaces of restaurants and cafés, and for common areas of work environments. These spaces are designed to ensure well-being and for an escape from everyday life. The idea is to bring the comfort that distinguishes indoor furniture to the outdoors.

As for indoor furniture- soft padding, modularity and customisation. The line between home and work is becoming increasingly fine and workspaces have taken on new configurations. Today the office needs to become dynamic and its furniture solutions flexible, functional and sustainable.

Can you describe the brand in three words?

Beauty, tradition, innovation