"Producing with honesty to pass on to future generations, building wooden furniture
solid wood able to challenge time in full respect of the environment".
This is the thought that guides and motivates every daily action of Riva 1920, the Italian company specializing in the production of solid wood furnishings in a classic style.
Born from a small family-run artisan workshop in the city of Cantù , Riva has made its way over the years becoming a partner of several well-known designers and a success story of Viva Digital.
Can we start with a brief description of your company?
The company is a small joint-stock company located in Cantù that owns three small factories and, in my opinion, a point of excellence which is our showroom , which houses a museum with more than twelve thousand pieces dating back to 1750.
The room where we are now houses the Pangea, then we also see a silo library, a material library, a marble library, and a large bookcase with quite a few books. This room is a space we use for calls, but above all it is a space that houses, as already mentioned, the table I am sitting at and another similar one behind me, very large and fragmented, which is precisely the Pangea. The latter was presented in Pavilion Zero and made of kauri , a fifty-thousand-year-old wood with the earth's crust made from Venetian briccole beneath it . This is a great thing for us, because our company has been promoting the culture of woodworking for years and years.
Our business idea is based on producing to pass on . We use only reforested wood, trying to give it a second life without deforesting it ourselves. However, we sometimes face complications that ultimately resolve the difficulty. For example, we pour resin on boards that are approximately forty or fifty thousand years old, and in doing so, we preserve the wood, using them for gluing, when in fact the whole board is perfect and intended solely for woodworking.
We have therefore taken a step towards the environment for thirty years, therefore we do not even use formaldehyde to make our products.
Is this room that you described so well and so interesting to me accessible to the public and do you allow visits, or is it dedicated solely to company meetings?
We have meetings here, but for example, three universities will come to visit us in a fortnight.
We can say that we welcome everyone and, indeed, if I have the opportunity, I too speak to us so as to try to convey the desire to work with wood and to follow our thinking, which is to produce to pass on with quality.
I call myself a carpenter and I'm sixty-eight years old, and I still want to leave something behind. I think any human being who can leave something to future generations should do so so that, ultimately, when they leave this world, they will be happy and satisfied to have done something good for others.
In any case, by booking on our site, it is possible to make visits for schools, while for people who come here individually or even in small groups to take a tour, it is possible to enter even without a reservation. For security of availability, we recommend that large groups make a reservation before joining us for a visit.
How was your company born and what are the leading products at the moment?
The company was founded in 1920 by my grandfather Nino and later continued by my father, and now I lead it. When I joined, there were three of us, and then the company expanded. Today, there have been some changes; a Hungarian fund has joined, although it doesn't have a majority stake.
Our flagship products are varied , as we have several factories. In one factory we produce tables , in another, cedar logs, and in the last, furniture . We have different products in each small company, and each has products that are more niche than the others. For example, in the factory where we produce tables, we have tables designed by Renzo Piano, Mario Botta, Farina, and, in particular, a very strong piece by the architect Duan. We also have a clothes peg that serves as a bench and a decorative item in homes, and which can even stand outdoors under water because it's made of cedar. These can be considered our flagship products.
You are in a very important area for this sector. What, in your opinion, is the characteristic that distinguishes you from the competition?
A very important fact that certainly sets us apart is that we don't use glued or paper. We still edge all our products with solid wood, just like my grandfather did, we use vinyl sealers, and then, for thirty years, we've finished our furniture with scented oils made with pine and orange extracts. We continue this fight to remain faithful to tradition , unlike many companies today that produce and use glued or paper.
We have a unique feature: using Venetian briccole in our products. Another thing we do is process cedar logs , which would otherwise be over 90% wasted. Then we invented using kauri , sourced from the other side of the world. We also recently received a wood called Giarra, which means blood in Aboriginal.
Then I did this one and a half year operation with about 180 San Patrignano carpenters, where we opened the exhausted barrels and made products in collaboration with great designers such as Citterio, Terituana, Mario Botta and Farina. We will pay six percentage points of sales fees to San Patrignano to help the community and make our contribution.
Who is your typical customer?
Our typical customer is primarily the retailer, then we have total flexibility having customers all over the world, we export to Japan, America, China and Russia.
What are the future projects?
The future is a huge unknown because, as we know, there's a war going on, and even though we're recovering from Covid, we can't make any precise predictions about how these events will unfold and how they will impact our lives. For now, I can say that our future as a company is to present ourselves at the Salone del Mobile with new products and convey the message that something must be done; we can't continue to destroy our way of life in every way. Even though the future is uncertain, we are working hard and trying to use materials with the lowest possible negative impact on the environment, and we continue to send a message of peace and sustainability , which is even more important to celebrate in this historical moment.
How is your company dealing with the issue of digitization?
I'm not very familiar with social media, but our company has thrown headlong into digitization. We no longer believe in the success of print media, while we strongly believe in the potential of digitization, we invest a lot because we believe it is the future.
What marketing strategies do you plan to pursue for the future and what goals do you have in marketing?
You have to become strong in the market through resellers, find very good resellers. The team also makes a difference, so we have a world export manager, an Italy manager, an export manager Europe, we have a social office and one for communication and graphics.
At the moment we are engaged in some projects, we have set up a collaboration, it is a virtual fair. We have an agent in Canada and we are looking for some companies specialized in Italian design in Canadian cities with a population of over two thousand, to send them a letter and introduce ourselves. In this way, these Canadian companies will at least know of the existence of our brand, this is for us like attending a fair. I now believe little in fairs, if not in the Milan Fair. This is the new way to introduce yourself and let other companies and people know about our company and convey our message.
Do you have a last message that you want to leave, or a wish for your company before concluding this interview?
Yes, I want to throw a very important stone, because it is a bit what I went through and I am going through. Be very careful not to expand the family's mesh too much within the company and to always define roles well. Remember that first it is necessary to make the company go well and then, only at this point, what grows can be brought home.
It's absolutely important to work together and deal with professionals , but also to be careful and not trust anyone. No one wants to work with people who take the company like a daily jackpot.
A final message I want to convey is that I find what's happening to be surreal and mad. The world needs to move in a different direction. It's destroying itself, and the situation must change. Italy, too, is calling for a review of some regulations. It's important to give employees more money and entrepreneurs more rights. I'll end by saying that I hope the war ends soon and that I want to commit myself to helping future generations with great dedication, because we can't go on like this.
