Sixty years of forward-looking business
Santalucia Mobili has been in business for sixty years this year. To mark this important milestone, we chatted to Jacopo Galli, Santalucia Mobili’s CEO, about some of the key moments in the company’s history.
Sixty years in the industry is an impressive achievement, but these decades of experience also give the company a unique vantage point from which to look back over the journey so far and think about the road ahead. In this short interview, we explore past and present, the challenges overcome and the new horizons to be explored. What emerges is the account of a company that has shown robustness and vision, adapting to the times without losing sight of its roots.
Sixty years in business is quite the milestone. It’s telling of the company’s ability to evolve with the times. What does this anniversary mean to Santalucia Mobili today?
It’s an important legacy for Santalucia Mobili. It also brings with it responsibility to build a solid path for those who will come after us. We want to make sure they can enjoy this rich history in order to write the next chapter. We’re also stronger because of it, especially in business negotiations. Being able to count on such consolidated experience means we can guarantee a professional service to our customers, both in Italy and abroad.
Unlike many companies in this industry, Santalucia Mobili isn’t a family business but instead grew from a team of people who shared a common goal. How has this shared identity influenced the way the company has grown and its culture?
It has had a huge impact that goes much beyond what are sometimes perceived as the limitations of our business model. It’s about the value of shared dreams and goals, and the value of sharing itself.
When I think back to the very beginning, it brings a smile to remember that Santalucia Mobili was the shared vision of our founders.
They were all working for other companies but had the same desire to build something of their own that brought them together. Even the flooding in 1965 wasn’t enough to drown out their dreams. Despite the hurdles, they pulled together and carried on, and here we still are today. And their spirit of never giving up still lives on.
What have been some of the company’s defining moments?
I’ve been at Santalucia Mobili for 40 of these 60 years, and there have been plenty of jubilant ups but also some complex downs. I remember when I’d only just joined, the French market really took off and 60% of our turnover was coming from exports. Then when the French decided to go elsewhere, I remember senior management and the partners didn’t lose heart. They got to work quickly to find new avenues to explore. That’s when our first modular ranges came about. Today, they’re one of our flagship product lines. Another key moment was the industry crash that followed the subprime mortgage crisis just after 2010. Again, it was having a clear, shared objective, and partners that weren’t willing to give up, that meant we got through it and could get back on track thereafter.
The last one is when we closed because of Covid in 2020. We took it as an opportunity to redefine some of our strategies and to stop and think seriously about sustainability. We adopted a concrete approach based on ESG (Environmental Social Governance) principles, which carried us through to our next milestone: becoming one of the first – if not the first – Benefit Company in the Italian furniture sector.
So, Santalucia Mobili became a Benefit Company in March – another important achievement in 2025. What has this changed on the ground in terms of how you do business?
It’s a dream come true. Right from the start, we saw it as a duty – for people in business, as in politics – to lead the way by taking concrete action, moving in the right direction, so as to offer a future to the generations to come, without depleting all the available resources.
Becoming a Benefit Company – and amending our Articles of Association to include objectives relating to the common good, alongside the existing financial goals – was a way of confirming the values and purpose we’d already been pursuing since Covid. The aim was to act as a catalyst in our industry, showing that you can do business while taking care of people and the planet at the same time. And there’s no need to look for excuses like no-one else is doing it, it’s too expensive or there isn’t time.
Sustainability has become a key area in business. How can we stop it from becoming just another buzzword? And what concrete choices is Santalucia Mobili making?
Every year, we record everything we’re doing in our Sustainability Report: saving energy, reducing CO2 emissions, sourcing materials that have a lower environmental impact, improving process efficiency and taking care of our people and the local community. There’s a group of “sustainability ambassadors” that help us with all of this. The group is made up of various team members and was formed in 2024. They help keep us on track as regards all things sustainability.
Let’s end on a light-hearted note and play a quick game. Tell us a Santalucia Mobili story that comes to mind for each of these words.
SURPRISE
It has to be the enthusiasm of our partners, who stand by us and support us in all our decisions. They say too many cooks spoil the broth, but at Santalucia Mobili our 13 partners are proof that that’s not the case.
HOME
It’s the concept behind our flagship product showroom, “La Casa Homy”. It’s also knowing that in our team, even among the newest members, there’s a sense of pride in feeling part of a family. Home is family.
CHALLENGE and COURAGE
Challenge and courage go together in my mind. We’re constantly faced with situations we haven’t been in before, which means accepting new challenges. And this requires courage. The courage to step away from old paradigms and look for new ways forward. Plus, you generally need a healthy dose of courage to do business today.
WORLD
The world has got smaller. So much so that Europe is now seen as an extension of our home nation, and when we say “abroad” we mean outside the EU. When visiting customers in faraway countries who have our products on display, I often think just look how far our founders’ products have come from that small workshop. From those seven friends who dreamed of becoming businessmen.