Italian furniture and decoration brand Spazio Interni’s first branch in Doha was inaugurated last Saturday. Below: Furniture on display during the opening ceremony on Salwa Road. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula
Doha: The first branch of Spazio Interni for decoration and furnishings opened last Saturday on Salwa Road in the presence of Italian Ambassador to Qatar, Guido De Sanctis, Mansour Abdullatif Al Mahmoud, Executive Director of the company, and several VIPs and media personnel.
The Italian ambassador pointed out that Italian furniture and items of decoration are one of the important Italian exports to Qatar and the Middle East in general. “This is a clear evidence that Italian goods are well known for their high quality and magnificence”.
“Despite the relatively high prices of Italian brands compared to other products, Italian brands are in high demand because of their high quality and finest touches”, he added.
I am happy to be here on the launch of the first branch of Spazio Interni in support of Italian companies providing innovative products in the world of furniture and decoration, said Sanctis.
Sanctis emphasised that trade ties and exchanges between the two countries have witnessed significant progress in the past, particularly after the opening of commercial mission at the embassy in Doha. He added that “trade exchange between Qatar and Italy has reached around QR2bn and Italian exports to Qatar amounted to around QR1bn, and furniture is placed second among the exports”.
Mansour Abdullatif Al Mahmoud said: “We are pleased to launch today the first branch of Spazio Interni which means in Italian “internal decorations” that invites one for filling the interior spaces with high quality antiques and furniture, adding a group of Italian companies to the Qatari market”.
The Executive Director of Spazio Interni said “we have a number of exclusive agencies in the region on top of that Sirmani, specialising in modern furniture, and Design Nature Company which offers quality wooden accessories. The designers of the company and the artist recycle old wood and produce impressive pieces of arts; this is in addition to illumination specialised in production of chandeliers and crystal.
Talking about textiles, Al Mahmoud said Spazio Interni provides luxurious fabrics from companies like Marco Foresti, CTS, and Samgiorgio specialising in silk and cotton, and from Gacimbirti Company which is a major producer of silk and satins.
When it came to attracting excellent brands to the Qatari market, our choice was the Italian brands which are famous for their luxury and excellence and long history with Qatari customers, said Al Mahmoud praising the quality of Italian products.
He added: “We have witnessed more attraction for Italian brands following the spread of Chinese and other cheap and low quality products in the market”.
Al Mahmoud pointed out that the company is ready to meet special orders which could be prepared at the mother company in Italy. He added that while visiting the factory in Italy he noted that the sizes of the furniture were small in keeping with small flats there. “We asked the factory to make the sizes bigger in line with the bigger villas and spaces here”.
Ahmed Samih, Director of Marketing at Spazio Interni branch, lauded the quality of Italian products saying “our products have lifelong warranty because all goods here were made unbreakable. They are made from special beech woods and other hard woods.
Samih assured customers that prices are competitive, because we conducted visibility study in the market and compared Spazio Interni’s products with similar ones in the local market and then decided the prices in collaboration with the Italian brands.
