Alessi is More
Interview | Alastair Duncan The Italian brand’s young powerhouse, Matteo Alessi, talks about their global expansion – and THAT lemon squeezer THERE’S A SNEER from Matteo Alessi, 30-yearold scion of the Italian homeware dynasty, as the ‘D’ word is mentioned. “The word ‘design’ is used a lot these days,” he says. “In the 1980s and early ‘90s, [...]
Interview | Alastair Duncan
The Italian brand’s young powerhouse, Matteo Alessi, talks about their global expansion – and THAT lemon squeezer
THERE’S A SNEER from Matteo Alessi, 30-yearold scion of the Italian homeware dynasty, as the ‘D’ word is mentioned.
“The word ‘design’ is used a lot these days,” he says. “In the 1980s and early ‘90s, we were the only company that used this strategy, using design as the main focus.
Now, many companies do that: some have the right to do so, but a lot do not. A metaphor I often use is that a lot of companies use the word ‘design’ as a spice to make
the food taste better. With us, it’s the main ingredient. The aim of Alessi is to achieve design excellence.”
The debonair young Italian, who recently became chief of their newlyformed marketing and international development department, is speaking with me today about
Alessi’s latest Christmas and spring 2009 ranges. Apart from discussing Alessi’s aspirations to enter new markets and their strategy to deal with the
economic climate, he’s keen to press home that Alessi’s long-established mantra of giving designers completely free rein is not set to change any time soon.
“Our approach is not setting boundaries for a designer,” explains the Italian-raised executive in his perfect English. “They are the really creative ones, so there’s no point
in doing market research about how our next product should look. Consumers tend to only tell you: ‘Well, it should be like this but a bit bigger, or more square or rounder.’
Giving total freedom and flexibility to a designer leads to evolution in design.”
Since the 1970s, Alessi has been elevating the mundane business of manufacturing cutlery, chinaware and other domestic goods to a high art form. Founded in 1921 by
Giovanni Alessi, the family-run company began with a metalworks factory in northern Italy, manufacturing basic copper, brass and nickel-plated tableware.
Fast-forward two generations and his grandson Alberto (still a charismatic managing director of the company) embraced the worlds of art and architecture,
hiring some of the world’s most free-thinking creative talents, including Salvador Dali, Michael Graves, Aldo Rossi and Philippe Starck. In fact, Starck’s iconic, spider-like
lemon-squeezer remains one of Alessi’s most instantly recognisable designs to this day.
“This famous lemon squeezer was feedback to a precise brief we gave him: for a tray, in fact,” says Alessi. “In most cases, 99% of companies in the world would
respond with: ‘Look, we asked you to design a tray. This hardly looks like a lemon squeezer, let alone a tray.’ But in our case, we saw its potential, so decided
to launch it.”
This open-minded approach to design – saluting the wacky, weird and wonderful, with a tinge of the humorous – continues to this day. For instance, for
Christmas they are launching a range of porcelain figurines, a tongue-in-cheek take on nativity dolls, which have been created by comic-strip artists such as Massimo
Giacon. “They look more like 3D cartoons than objects,” notes a cheery Alessi. Meanwhile, the new range of tableware available from January challenges how everyday
objects should work: “The glasses are like normal wineglasses but without stems and without bases; they have a docking station where you put them.”
If they sound fairly bizarre, well they are, and, as Alessi readily admits, not all of these highminded concepts yield massive sales. But, using the quasi-philosophical
language that is his hallmark, he explains that objects like these are not as arbitrary as they might at first appear. They are all part of Alessi’s
overarching aim to achieve ‘design excellence’.
Alessi joined the family business in January 2005. “My father [Michele, also an MD of Alessi] had always been very open with me and my siblings. He was forced by his
father to enter the family business and he suffered a bit from it. He wanted us to be free to decide whether we wanted to join. But since I was young, I wanted to enter
the company because of the sense of pride I had in what my relatives were doing. I also wanted to do my part to make it grow as much as possible.”
Following three successful years as head of Alessi UK, during which he presided over a 50% growth in profits, Matteo was summoned back to the
Alessi headquarters in Crusinallo on Lake Orta. They wanted to set up a new International Development department and for him to be boss.
That was January 2008. A year on and it might seem a daunting prospect, making sorties into new markets as worldwide economies teeter on the edge of recession.
But Alessi remains optimistic.
“We are feeling what’s happening in some markets, like the US, for example,” he says. “Our advantage is that we haven’t explored a lot of other international markets so
far. So we still have the potential to grow, even in tough times.”
Alessi already has presence in 70 countries around the world, but their approach to marketing has been very reactive up until now. “We used to sell when we were asked
for the products. Now we’re trying to be more proactive. The Far East, South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe are growing faster now.”
Part of Alessi’s expansion strategy is to blitz the marketplace. They bring out a staggering 100 new products per collection, released twice-yearly like haute couture
fashion. They also collaborate with a number of other brands. They recently brought out a line in sexily sinuous drinking paraphernalia with Peroni; an ice bucket, a bottle
cooler and opener that were all curves and shiny surfaces.
It’s a dizzyingly sprawling portfolio, but I ask Matteo what quirky new items would he like to see Alessi bring out in the years to come. “I would like to embed some
more technology in our products,” he replies. “For instance, bringing out fridges that know what’s inside them and what the expiry dates are, and do your shopping for you
directly online. To make everyday life a bit easier for everyone.”
He smiles and shakes his head. The young member of one of Italy’s most feverishly imaginative design firms then makes a confession: “But I’m not creative myself. It
probably wouldn’t work.” www.alessi.com
