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Matrika has a fascinating beginning that speaks of passion and entrepreneurship, heritage and technology

Meet the founders

 

Mattia Perroni

After a few years working in business consultancy, Mattia joined Berlin based Rocket Internet. Four very successful years later, in 2015, he joined Houzz, a leading Californian tech company in the furniture and interior design industry, valued at $4 billion, in executive roles. Since 2019 he's back in Milan.

 

Mario Perroni

Mario is Mattia’s father, as well as founder of Milano Sign. Established in 1973, the company has been taking care of signs, billboards and outdoor advertising for customers such as Martini, Bulgari, Credit Suisse and Vittoria Assicurazioni since 1980. In 2015, the company expanded its product range, including branding, internal image and digital signage.

Our motto is “factory to consumer”

Factory to consumer:
the company
takes care of the
design, prototyping
and distribution
at the same time

When he talks about Matrika, Mattia sounds enthusiastic. He created the brand at Milano Sign, a company that was founded by his father, Mario Perroni, in 1973 and that operates in the signage industry. Its headquarters are located in Pero, in the Province of Milan. This is where Perroni Senior has worked for over 40 years. It is also where, after a number of professional experiences abroad, his son touched down to give the family business a new look and a new impetus. The mission: to launch high-quality, expertly designed tables on the international market via a dedicated e-commerce website, which is managed and developed by the manufacturer, and is available to anyone, from anywhere, at any time.

The project revolves around high-level artisanal expertise and materials that represent Italian heritage, as well as affordable prices that are achieved by breaking down the distribution barriers which usually divide companies and consumers. “We would like to reach all four corners of the earth while preserving a strong bond with the region,” explains Mattia. For the first Matrika collection, he was inspired by a table that he designed himself for his home in Berlin. He lived in the city until a year ago where he covered the role of Country Manager for Italy and then Managing Director of international e-commerce for Houzz, a leading online platform for interior design and renovation.

Inspiration

“Working in the field of design, I wanted to enhance my apartment with tasteful, unique and elegant furniture,” says Mattia. “So, I set out in search of these pieces with my partner Erika. At one point, we had decided to buy a wooden table, but a setback, which I would now call luck, stopped us from doing so.

When the table was meant to be delivered, we were told that it would arrive late, so we found ourselves needing to buy another one at the last minute.” He goes on: “We ended up in a large store specialising in DIY and, right there, we said to one another, ‘Why don’t we make a table ourselves using our creativity?’ The end result? We got a wooden panel and 25 ceramic tiles. We put them together with legs that we bought online and, voilà, the table was ready.” From that moment on, an unexpected challenge began to make headway in the mind of Matrika’s current owner: to use the skills he had acquired over the years to return to his father’s company and renew it.

Many friends who were impressed by his homemade table also encouraged him. “They did nothing but compliment the design of that table, which we came up with almost for fun. Some of them even copied it,” continues Mattia. “And that’s not to mention the fact that Erika and I started to discover the characteristics of ceramic that we didn’t know about. It is incredibly easy to clean, and you can put or spill anything on it without ruining it.”

The evolution of an idea

So, the first test was complete. The following months saw Perroni Junior return to Italy and get the manufacturing of tables inspired by the one he made with his partner underway at Milano Sign’s factories in Pero. The difference was that the design was studied down to the last detail alongside all the technical characteristics that only a real factory can guarantee.

This is how Matrika became a reality. In this case, we are talking about a company that takes care of the design, prototyping and distribution of tables all at the same time. The tables have iron bases in different shapes and sizes, and are equipped with a worktop made from a layer of waterproof phenolic wood covered with ceramic tiles, which are resistant to high temperatures.

The Italian Ceramic district

All the suppliers are Italian companies located in an area that boasts an ancient industrial heritage in the field of tiles. It was back in 1741 that a group of entrepreneurs set up a company dedicated to the production of maiolica pottery in the small town of Sassuolo, in Emilia Romagna. Over time, the region comprising the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Bologna was renamed the “tile district” and became a driving force for the industry. Dozens of tile companies ended up producing 80 percent of Italian ceramics, and their products, particularly the high-end ones, were exported to countries like Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain.

“The ceramic for Matrika’s tables all comes from that region,” continues Mattia Perroni. “For us, this is a fundamental point. It is important that our customers know they are buying a table that is 100 percent Italian. This is because, the mission I gave myself when I returned to my country was to help small and medium-sized Italian enterprises, via a company called Cantieri Digitali, to develop brands capable of conquering the international market thanks to the use of new digital technologies. Basically, the factory provides the experience, the production, the machinery, the suppliers and so on and so forth, and we add the technology, the design and the marketing. The combination of these aspects leads to the development of competitive brands on a global scale.” Matrika is the first of these, and Mattia’s father, Mario Perroni, is very happy about this.

I wanted to bring a broad, long-term vision, or rather, to turn an Italian company into an international one. It is a mission that I also attach a certain social value to. Many Italian companies don’t have the tools or the skills to evolve, and yet, often they have lots of potential. It’s a real shame.

— Mattia Perroni

A meeting of generations

“I was convinced that my son would never return to Italy,” he admits. “Instead, one day, he told me that he thought Milano Sign could grow even further. Being 72 years old at the time, I told him, ‘Well, it certainly won’t with me!’ And so, here we are today, the two of us together.”

It is a tale of two distant generations joining forces to breathe life into a new future. It is a determined son’s risk to modernise his father’s company. “He always wanted me to be independent and to carve my own path. That’s why I worked abroad for nine years, first in London, then in the Philippines, then in Cairo and finally in Berlin,” says Mattia. “But I had been thinking for a while that the time had come to dedicate myself to the family business. I wanted to bring a broad, long-term vision, or rather, to turn an Italian company into an international one. It is a mission that I also attach a certain social value to. Many Italian companies don’t have the tools or the skills to evolve, and yet, often they have lots of potential. It’s a real shame.” Mario echoes his views: “Times have changed. Once upon a time, it was people who mattered. Nowadays, it’s the brands, the communication and the marketing that count: all things I know little about. Fortunately for me, I have my son!”

Higher quality, lower costs

Today, as Milano Sign’s activities continue, the two are united in a common, Matrika-branded adventure. “Working for Houzz, I ran into reality: Italian design abroad costs so much that it easily comes under the luxury category.

It doesn’t meet the needs of those who are able to spend on a good-quality, but not prohibitive, product. This is because there are at least five or six steps between the factory and the consumer. These cause an increase in costs and, subsequently, an increase in selling price to the public. Therefore, there is a huge slice of the market that Italian brands and companies are not covering, and that Scandinavian countries are focusing on instead. This is basically saying that Italy’s designer segment risks missing out on something that is important to satisfy all those potential customers with an average wage, who don’t love low-cost products but who can’t afford to buy luxury ones either.”

This is where the aforementioned “factory to consumer” motto comes from. It translates into the possibility of direct contact between the customer and the company. “The website where we sell Matrika’s tables is Matrika itself. This means that customers can ask us directly for information on the products, as well as to personalise certain details, such as the colour or the length of the legs.” What’s more: “We can alter these details on request and can also show the customer work in progress by sending them photographs or, if the customer wants to visit the company, by letting them see in real life. It is a kind of customer relationship that has unfortunately been lost and that we are trying to recreate.”

It is important that our customers know they are buying a table that is 100 percent Italian. This is because, the mission I gave myself when I returned to my country was to help small and medium-sized Italian enterprises to develop brands capable of conquering the international market thanks to the use of new digital technologies.

— Mattia Perroni

A team on the move

To recreate that relationship, a team of professionals spread between Milan and Berlin has been set up. In particular, the first designer chosen by Matrika for its tables, Spaniard Miriam Dos Santos, lives in the German capital. So do tech company professionals who represent Matrika’s core as a “digital native” company.

Matrika focuses on its online presence via its own website, without using the typical distribution chain made up of online platforms and physical stores. For the consumer, this translates into prices without the margins that the traditional retail system imposes on the end customer, short delivery times, easy assembly, compact packaging, personalised customer service and a significantly lower rate of waste. Besides the Pero production department, there are no company offices. “We are a young company, and I strongly believe that the eight-hour office day is as far away as possible from what young people want nowadays,” states Mattia. “Those who work for Matrika are free to manage their time and place of work as they see fit. The only condition is that we all meet up at least once a month for a collective workshop where everyone can update one another and exchange ideas.”

It is an approach that meets the needs of the modern world, for a company that is ready to establish itself on the global market as a real “table factory”. It offers lots of collections, also in materials other than iron and ceramic, by highly sought-after designers. All in the belief that uniting local and global tradition and innovation is the right road to head into the future.

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