Italsofa: 39m-euro business in H1

Sofa manufacturer Italsofa Romania, a part of the Italian group Natuzzi, posted a turnover worth 39 million euros in the first half of the year, a 39.1% increase against the 28 million euros in the same period of 2005, said the company’s vice-chairman Francesco Stasolla. “This trend has been generated by the increase in amounts delivered to the foreign markets and a better performance of Italsofa Romania’s partners,” said Stasolla. The sofa manufacturer posted turnover worth approximately 225 million RON (64 million euros) last year, a 20% increase, while profit went down 1.7%, to 36.9 million RON (some 10 million euros). Italsofa is scheduled to complete works to increase production capacity of the Baia Mare-based plant in 2006. The project, worth five million euros, was initiated last year. Natuzzi manufactures leather and micro-fibre sofas, and also processes wood and logs. The Baia Mare-based plant has a 65,000 square-metre surface area and a daily production capacity of some 2,300 seats (the unit of measurement used by furniture manufacturers).