COMO, Italy - Albatros savors a very private relationship with its customers according to Inge Vervest, managing director and principal of this 11-year-old producer based in Duizel, The Netherlands near Eindhoven.

"We're a small boutique firm by design,'' said Vervest. ''Our business is what we produce for our customers on an exclusive basis. There is no open line. Once we make the item, it is the exclusive property of our customer.''br>
"We take a few new customers each year and produce high-end qualities for the best wholesalers and editeurs. We do 50-meter minimums per color. No two customers have the same design. We want to be the best, not the biggest. We sell worldwide today, a few customers in each country. I travel 50 percent of my time and see my kids and husband on the weekends," she said.

The UK furniture manufacturer is another segment of Albatros' business. "They buy exclusive designs from Albatros and are treated the same way we treat the wholesaler," she said.

Albatros shows at the Miralago Hotel in Como each Proposte and during Decosit, you can find Inge in a lobby salon at the Meridien Hotel.