Amid Challenges, High-end Furniture Firm Natuzzi Battles With Italian Trade Unions Over 400 Jobs

<p>MILAN — High-end Italian <a href="https://wwd.com/home-design/interior-design/cester-family-cesar-regains-100-percent-company-control-1238679902/">design</a> <a href="https://wwd.com/tag/furniture/">furniture</a> firm<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fendi-casa-opens-first-saudi-182837157.html"> </a><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/italian-luxury-furniture-maker-natuzzi-215418451.html">Natuzzi’s</a> industrial plan for 2026 and 2028 and the fate of more than 400 jobs remain in limbo.</p>
<p>On Monday, the nation’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy said the third round of talks held by the ministry between trade unions and the Bari-based high-end furniture firm ended without a resolution.</p>
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<p>“Although there is no scheduled date for a new meeting, both the company and the unions, with differing words and nuances, hope for the resumption of dialogue,” the ministry said in a note published on its website on Monday.</p>
<p>Natuzzi Group, which produces sofas and other furniture at its facilities in Puglia, Basilicata and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, as well as Romania, said the industrial plan is crucial amid a challenging macro and geopolitical environment.</p>
<p>“The 2026-2028 industrial plan proposed to institutions and social partners remains, for the company, the strategic response to the need to address the current significant geopolitical and economic instability and to adapt its business model in response to a global scenario undergoing profound transformation,” Natuzzi said.</p>
<p>Natuzzi, which has most recently worked with designers like Karim Rashid and <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/italy-nemo-group-acquires-driade-084641359.html">Fabio Novembre</a>, currently employs about 1,800 people and said the industrial plan would affect the future of more than 400 employees, which the ministry said were “close to retirement.”</p>
<p>“The company, emphasizing the difficult economic and financial situation of the group, reaffirmed the conditions for an agreement: the closure of the Jesce 2 site and the sale of the Ginosa plant…the voluntary exit of around 400 workers close to retirement, and the reassignment of at least 300 additional people to companies in the area,” the note said.</p>
<p>The Apulia unit of the Fillea Cgil trade union stated layoffs would total 479 and would damage the integrity of Italian production.</p>
<p>“We hope that the next steps by the company will move in the direction of responsibility,” Italy’s Fillea Cgil said on its Instagram.</p>
<p>Natuzzi’s industrial plan involves a 50 million euro-investment for the 2026 to 2028 period.</p>
<h2>Expansion Amid Turmoil</h2>
<p>Natuzzi distributed its collections worldwide through a global retail network of about 565 stores and 687 wholesale partners at the end of 2025. According to the industrial plan, 72 openings with business partners were slated for 2026.</p>