COSTA MASNAGA, Italy—By changing its strategy from a supplier of novelty fabrics to a supplier of basic fabrics in an expanding price range, Limonta began 2010 sales with a gain in interior furnishings over 2009, which had been one of the more difficult years, according to Davide Malagutti, sales manager for Limonta.

“In 2009, we changed our strategy," Malagutti said. "The customer has always considered us a novelty fabrics supplier and we are still doing it if you consider that in 2010, more than 100 new articles, new construction, designs and colors, were introduced by Limonta at Proposte, respecting the historic image of the company but, at the same time, thought and created to cover and satisfy a different and much more wider market's demands. Since 2008, we have been involved with plains with texture and structure in natural fibers. In 2009, we offered a coordinated story with both plain fabrics and designs, available for both indoor and outdoor use, and everyone likes this program and this new way to create our collections is helping us attract more customers to our products”.

Gianni Limonta, president of the 100-year-old family-run firm, has industrial and automotive fabric divisions that puts Limonta in a major league of textile producers.

Malagutti has been with Limonta for 20 years. For more than 10 years, he has been the export  sales manager. Currently, he is supported by two export area managers managing more than ten independent agents worldwide.  

“We are aggressively pursuing new business in the United States which together with Europe have been our main markets, but now we’re expanding our business in other countries in the Eastern part of the World from Eastern Europe to the very Far East thanks in part to the decline in the value of the Euro which should give us an added boost,” Malagutti said.