SANTERAMO, ITALY – Natuzzi S.p.A. (NYSE: NTZ), the largest furniture house in Italy, approved a two-year plan to return to profitability. Headquartered near Bari, Italy, the $650 million producer of leather upholstered furniture and recliners has suffered several years of contraction, reorganizing its Italian manufacturing operation last year. Last summer it laid off over 1,700 employees.

To steer the effort, Natuzzi named Marco Saltalamacchia, a former executive with BMW Europe, its Chief Commercial Officer.

“By joining the Natuzzi Group, I have accepted an important professional challenge, that I intend to carry on with the utmost enthusiasm and pride," says Saltalamacchia. “The pursuit of beauty, excellence in quality, production efficiency and environmental sustainability are strategic guidelines on which the Natuzzi Group has built its history.”

  Saltalamacchia, who was Senior VP Europe at BMW from 2007 to 2009, is charged with implementing a board approved plan. Part is aimed at reviving its Italian operations, which will require the company, unions, and federal and local Italian governments to implement an industrial reorganization plan agreed on in October 2013.

That plan calls for investments and a reduction in production costs. Natuzzi says it will adopt 24 industrial product platforms, re-engineering existing furniture models and designing new models to be produced on a new "moving-line" production process. The "moving line" process will be rolled out in all of the Group’s factories in Italy, China, Romania and Brazil.

Founded in 1959 by Pasquale Natuzzi, current Chairman, CEO and Stylist, Natuzzi Group designs, produces and sells sofas, armchairs and living room accessories, and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange 1993. Selling in 123 countries, production is horizontally integrated through factories in Italy, China, Brazil and Romania, controlling over 92% of raw materials and semi-finished products.