This is the story of a man and his
extraordinary vision, the tale of a family
and its company, an account of an
experience with a touch of the cinematic
and romantic, and a journey about
reaching out to the world.
It could be the plot of an Italian neo-realist film: in the early 60s Romano
Conficconi, the 23-year old son of a poor family in the province of Forlì, found
work in a local barber’s salon which he went on to run himself. After a few years,
however, he decided he wanted the security of government-sector employment.
He gave up the salon and, for a while, worked as a barber in a sanatorium for TB
patients in Forlì that is now the Pierantoni Hospital. In those years, Romano also
had a second job: every weekend, in the basement of his house, he helped his
brother-in-law Bruno upholster armchairs and sofas, while his wife and sister
cut the fabrics with templates and sewed the pieces together. There were in fact
3 large companies in Forlì that dealt with sofas, so they had plenty of work on
their hands. Romano enjoyed this work so much that eventually he decided to
quit his job as barber once and for all. He found a larger workshop and employed
craftsmen and skilled workers, and the beginning of ’72 proved to be a turning
point: Romano, together with his wife Cesarina, embarked on the path of an
entrepreneur, with all the associated hopes and fears. In 1974 he created the
name Cierre, based on the initials of Cesarina and Romano: two people who
would then be forever at each other’s side - with Romano taking important
decisions for the family and Cesarina offering him support and words of
encouragement during times of difficulty. That same year he set up the
company’s first furniture salon with its own brand of sofas, participating with the
consortia of craftsmen of Emilia-Romagna and those of upholstered furniture of
Forlì. The company became known throughout Italy with the intermediation of
sales agents and thanks to Romano who travelled throughout the country,
promoting the excellence of his product in every region. When Romano thinks
back to this time, he tells with a wry smile of how difficult it was to communicate
in a provincial Italy that still put the local dialect before the national language.
And he remembers with a little regret how the companies of Forlì were not
inclined to work together and form a pole, something that the artisans of Brianza
would have done successfully. These were years of sacrifice, when the family
never took time out to go on holiday but instead worked day and night and were
responsible for a team of more than 30 people. On a typical Sunday afternoon,
the radio would be tuned into the latest football match while Romano and
Cesarina prepared the leathers and fabrics ready for production on Monday;
and their three children, Alberto, Stefano and Varinia, would play Cowboys and
Indians with toy guns among the foam rubber cushions in the workshop,
breathing the scent of what would become their life as adults. At the end of the
‘70s, events took a turn: Cierre made contact with one of the leading French
purchasing groups that were all the rage in the world of large-scale retail and
were looking to collaborate with sofa manufacturers. The district of Forlì was
attractive for the excellent quality/price ratio that it had to offer and Cierre was
among the first companies to seize this new opportunity. The company
expanded commercially throughout the ’80s, increasing production volumes
and its workforce, which went up to a hundred employees. The second
generation joined the company: the children of Romano and Cesarina, who had
breathed the smells of the workshop since they were children and had fun
making buttons with the offcuts of fabrics and leather, were by this time
teenagers and could help with deliveries outside Italy. As they became more
capable, they grew to love Cierre even more, gradually taking on decision-
making roles and eventually becoming partners when they came of age. They
honed their skills in the factory, feeling the pressure of being the children of the
owners but knowing they still had the freedom to learn from their mistakes and
do better. They were to develop a great sense of social responsibility and
awareness of the need to love the company, in order to ensure the wellbeing of
the family and of all the workforce. This was during a time when Cierre was
selling and distributing its own brand of products not only around Italy, but also
in Europe together with the brands of well-known Belgian and French purchasing
