Italian Design Brands (IDB), the pole of high quality Italian design furniture, has finalized the operation to become the majority partner of Flexalighting, a company specialized in the design and production of LED lighting systems for interiors and exteriors in the residential, hospitality and commercial.
Under the agreement, the founder and CEO of Flexalighting Roberto Mantovani remains at the helm of the company, in which he has reinvested maintaining a significant stake. Two other historical partners of the company and Paolo Pagani also participated in the operation.
Flexalighting is the seventh company to enter the furniture hub established in 2015, which with this operation expands its presence in a strategic sector such as lighting - which in Italy records an annual production value of 2,2 billion Euro and an export quota of 75% – in which the Group has been present since 2018 with the company Davide Groppi. In particular, the entry of Flexalighting into IDB allows the Group to expand its expertise in the important segment of technical lighting, a highly specialized and very high potential market, focusing on a reality that in just a few years has been able to assert its presence on the market internationally recording significant growth rates.
Flexalighting, based in Pontassieve (Florence), is a young and dynamic reality, characteristics it shares with its founder, the Modenese architect and lighting designer Roberto Mantovani who, after an experience gained in product and light design, has founded Flexalighting by placing its expertise in the design field and its vision of the architectural use of LED technology at the service of the company. The company has grown rapidly by developing a wide range of XNUMX% Made in Italy lighting fixtures for interiors and exteriors, for applications ranging from residential to retail, from hospitality to the tertiary sector. Products in which great attention to optical and construction quality and reliability translates into high-level lighting solutions, in which efficiency, durability and small dimensions translate into lighting solutions capable of enhancing the compositional text without violating it, on the contrary becoming an integral part of it.
In less than 10 years, the company has developed rapidly, reaching annual revenues of approximately 5 million Euros and recording important and constant growth rates, against an activity distributed in over sixty countries. A vocation for internationalization that led it to open its first foreign office in Vancouver in 2017, Flexalighting North America, which produces the range designed in Italy for the North American market. Flexalighting will continue to operate independently in line with the philosophy underlying the IDB project, which aims to combine an entrepreneurial approach and respect for the identity and independence of individual companies with a broader strategic, long-term and international vision. IDB will therefore accompany Flexalighting in the implementation of its growth plans, supporting it in further international and commercial development, and at the same time will be able to integrate its contract offer dedicated to the specialized channel of architects and interior designers.
“I am thrilled to have joined the IDB project – commented Roberto Mantovani, CEO of Flexalighting – which I consider very interesting and extremely stimulating. Flexalighting was born when LED technology was establishing itself in the architectural field. The idea behind our project was to develop the potential associated with the extremely small size of LEDs to create solutions and products capable of integrating light, architecture and landscape. In just a few years, Flexalighting has grown exponentially, reaching a dimension that has led us to reflect on how to best manage our development prospects. I am sure that being part of a large hub like IDB will allow us to fully express our potential and further accelerate along the path started by the company".
The operation was financed by Unicredit and assisted by: Marco Franzini (Eversheds Sutherland) and Nicola Pabis Ticci (Studio Legale Bigliardi, Pabis Ticci & Associati); Gennaro Scalamandrè (Studio Dr. G. Scalamandrè); Marco Valdonio (studio Maisto and Associates); Antonio Di Prima (SCS Consulting); and by Marco Leonardi (Gattai, Minoli, Agostinelli, Partners) as consultant of Unicredit.
