In 2025, Pedrali will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Manzano factory, located in one of the most historically significant chair-making districts in Europe and the world. This is the heart of the company’s entirely Made in Italy wood production, where traditional craftsmanship and industrial innovation coexist.
The area’s proximity to certified forests in Austria and Slovenia makes it strategically important. Here, Pedrali has organized a production process that begins at the sawmills and, before that, in the forests. There, trees are selected long before they are cut down. The wood is then processed according to the rhythm of the seasons to encourage optimal maturation. This aligns with the company’s philosophy of creating quality objects that last over time, which is one of the best forms of savings, while adopting a lean production model to reduce waste and produce only on order.
«Italy has some of the world’s best technologies for processing wooden chairs, as well as a wealth of specialized skills for selecting raw materials and performing complex processes that are difficult to replicate elsewhere. When we decided to open a wood production unit, we knew we had to come to this area to find the best professionals», explain Monica and Giuseppe Pedrali, the company’s CEOs.
Manzano is where chairs that have marked Pedrali’s history were born, such as Frida by Odo Fioravanti. Frida was presented in 2008 at the 32nd edition of the International Chair Exhibition in Udine, and in 2011 it was awarded the Compasso d’Oro. Among the designers who have collaborated with the company for many years is CMP Design, a trio who have designed numerous wooden collections: Malmö, Tivoli, Osaka, Nemea, Nym, Folk, Jamaica, and Lamorisse. The most recent product of this collaboration is Griante, the company’s first wooden chair designed specifically for outdoor use. It celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Manzano plant and its expertise. Griante has a teak frame (ash for the indoor version) that supports a seat and back made of tightly and evenly woven polypropylene ribbon, forming a square pattern.
Pedrali’s wood products are FSC® C114358 certified, meaning they are made with material from certified forests that are managed correctly and responsibly. Additionally, the paints used are water-based and mostly composed of vegetable-based resins, which drastically reduces chemical compounds in the environments where they are used and those they furnish.
In an effort to constantly improve, the Manzano headquarters expanded in 2019 to reach 20,000 sq m, and 700 m² of photovoltaic panels were installed. All of the company’s indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures were also converted to LEDs. Since 2021, a dedicated vacuum plant has been operational for separating processing waste. Uncontaminated solid wood chips—free of glues or other chemicals—are separated from chips derived from multilayer or treated woods. Both types of waste are recyclable and reusable. Additionally, since 2018, the company has conducted a Corporate Carbon Footprint study and obtained certification according to UNI EN ISO 14064-1:2019.
Photo credits: Filippo Romano, Ottavio Tomasini, Delfino Sisto Legnani, Alessandro Saletta, Melania Dalle Grave, Pierca
