B&B and the Busnellis
The Busnelli family is once again the major shareholder of B&B Italia, the premier contemporary furnishings manufacturer founded by Piero Ambrogio Busnelli in 1966.
An operation carried out under the advisement of Gruppo Banca Profilo and Studio Legale Chiomenti has restored the total control of B&B Italia to the Busnelli family, which has taken over 51.4 percent shares from the Opera Fund.
Having maintained their role as operative corporate management through the partnership with the Opera Fund, Giorgio and Emanuele Busnelli, president and director respectively of B&B Italia, have now also recovered corporate control of the family-owned company.
“We operate in open integrated markets,” says Giorgio Busnelli, “focussed on rewarding brands that can express strong intrinsic, aesthetic and functional values, the same that have always underpinned the success of B&B Italia. Therefore, we deem it appropriate on our part to gain full control of the middle and long term development of the company, focusing on B&B Italia’s capacity to endow products with all the values, technical competency and design aesthetics that have generated unmistakable collections in terms of style and elegance for over 40 years.”
Concludes Busnelli, “This operation is part of a strategic framework that is driven by ambitious developmental goals, especially in terms of exports towards markets that are experiencing a powerful economic growth and which offer interesting developmental prospects.”
Having been in the business since 1966, B&B Italia is an international leader in the sector of design furnishings both for the retail and corporate market. Products are designed in collaboration with world-famous designers, such as Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Zaha Hadid, Gaetano Pesce, Naoto Fukasawa and Jeffrey Bernett, and are marketed through the brands B&B Italia and Maxalto.
Consolidated turnover for B&B Italia in 2010 exceeded 156 million euro. The company, which employs a workforce of approximately 500 distributed between the two branches, prides itself on an internal R&D Centre that absorbs about three percent of the yearly turnover.