By Piritta Törrö, International Marketing & Business Development
Combining housewares and homes doesn’t sound like anything groundbreaking at first. But two Italian men from the world of property development are redefining the essence of home buying and its link to housewares retail. And doing this, they won one of the five gia Global Honoree awards this year. Michelle Hespe checks out what the clever duo are up to.
One Stop Shop
Quality Living in Verona, Italy, is exactly what it sounds like – a business inspiring people to have a quality lifestyle. Paolo Zanza, President of the company, and Vice President Mario Fedrigoli, have united their business acumen and experience in real estate, to devise a retail store that not only inspires shoppers with exciting new housewares and home products, but also sells them the homes to put their goods in.
Quality Living is quite literally, a one-stop shop.
Paolo, after years of experience in marketing and communication in multinational companies, began working in real estate development, taking on his family business, Zanzaimmobili, which has been active in the Verona area for around 30 years. Mario works in the construction industry at his family’s business, Fedrigoli Construction, dealing with administrative management and real estate development.
So it was in 2010, after many years of collaboration between the two family businesses, that the penny dropped, and Paolo and Mario came up with a grand plan for a new business – Quality Living.
The aim of Quality Living was to develop and promote high quality real estate projects, but the men knew they needed a draw card to get people in the door, to look at the models of the apartments, and they wanted to show people how the apartments they were selling would look and feel with great products in them.
So in 2011, the pair opened a large concept retail store, stocking furnishings and objects. The innovative idea that integrated the home and housewares worked exceedingly well, and they soon had people pouring in the door.
When visitors enter Quality Living, they can see the models of the real estate developments that Paolo and Mario are working on – at the moment, they have seven to eight projects in development. Then, visitors can delve further, entering actual models of units before they buy. Quality Living sells two types of apartments: Easy Home apartments are around 89,000 – 269,000 Euros, and the Prestige Collection is around half a million, up to four million Euros.
The Quality Living store sells gadgets, designer products, kitchenware, larger furnishings and even entire kitchens. There is also a bookstore stocking art, photography and design needs. On the second floor, where the kitchenware is displayed, there is a resident chef, continually cooking food for customers so that they can eat as they browse. Wine is available as well, fostering very happy, well-fed customers. The third floor is Easy Home, which sells whatever a customer could want for their apartment – the model being similar to IKEA.
The concept has gone so well that Paolo and Mario are soon opening a new store at the more touristy area of Garda Lake. They are also opening a second store in the center of Verona – Quality Living Design Café and Bar. Customers can dine there, and literally buy everything around them. It will also give the company the opportunity to grow another part of the business – cooking classes. “They have become high in demand,” said Paolo.
The new outlet will be in keeping with the first store, applying the same business model. “Our business is distinguished primarily by the vertical integration of three offers: real estate, the world of furniture, and objects,” said Paolo. “But we also believe there are two other things that differentiate our business: First, continual research on quality in both the cheaper line (Easy Home) and the innovative product line of prestige (Prestige Collection), and secondly, the attention and service we give our customers, in terms of listening, performance and custom care. Our relationship with the customer is never standardized, it is personalized.”
With such an innovative idea, it wasn’t surprising that Quality Living became one of the five gia Global Honorees in Chicago at the Global Innovation Awards, hosted during the International Home + Housewares Show and run by the International Housewares Association (IHA) in March. The gia jury, consisting of four globally recognized retail experts and seven editors and publishers of home and housewares trade publications from around the world, thought the concept was one of the most innovative ideas they had seen in years. Quality Living impressed the gia jury on every level – in addition to the Global Honoree award they also won the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising.
And the pair could not have been happier with their win. “gia has become an additional ‘quality mark’ for our company,” said Paolo. “Our regular customers were very proud, and new customers have been intrigued by the victory – they come to the store with curiosity, to find out who we are and what we offer.”
Paolo and Mario found that one of the best things about attending the International Home + Housewares Show and entering gia was that they were able to step outside of their own world and see what other businesses are doing to stay top of their field in retail. “Winning gia was very satisfying, not only on a personal level, but also on a professional one,” said Paolo. “Because we had the chance to compare our approach to business with what is happening at an international level. It was also an excellent opportunity to learn and to get feedback from meetings with experts in the industry.”
Since returning to Italy, the pair have continued to promote their win in everything they do, and it has kept them on their toes in terms of the business’ growth. “To us, being innovators means that every day we are working on quality, and gia has been a stimulus for us to continue doing what we are doing,” said Paolo.
Paolo and Mario highly recommend entering gia to other housewares retailers, because they discovered that just by entering the awards, they learned more about their own business. “It is important to compare yourself with other retailers in the world,” said Paolo. “But mostly, gia is an incentive to improve your own business, and to seek innovative solutions. It is an excellent opportunity to be encouraged to seek out the best, and by doing that, you discover that there is always one more step you can take and something else you can do.”
You can find more images of Italy’s Quality Living in our 2013 gia Global Honorees photo album over on our Facebook page!
For more information about the gia (Global Innovation Award) program, the co-sponsors, or participating in 2013-2014, contact Piritta Törrö at piritta.torro@inspiredconnection.fi. Additional information on the gia program is also available online at www.housewares.org/gia.
For more information about the International Home + Housewares Show and to pre-register for the 2014 Show, taking place in Chicago on March 15-18, 2014, please visit www.housewares.org.
