VALENCIA (EFE). The Spanish company Lladró, immersed in a process of repositioning within the world of design, opened its first store in New York this Wednesday with a new concept where customers are invited to “interact” with the pieces on display.
The executive director of the Valencian porcelain company -which celebrates its seventieth anniversary this year-, Ana Rodríguez, highlighted at the inauguration that they have opted for New York because it is the world reference in art, design and fashion, and because the United States is a very important market for the brand.
He added that it is not so much a typical store -although almost all the exhibited pieces can be bought- as an exhibition place and “a journey through the senses” (there are pieces that can be touched, smelled and even heard) that seek “an emotional connection with customers.”
He also highlighted that the pieces are always made of porcelain and made by hand by artisans in the only plant that the company has in Valencia, which makes its products unique pieces “that have a history behind them”.
Rodríguez told EFE that the company’s strategy “wants to be perceived as more modern” by acknowledging that their designs had become “outdated”, which is why for six years they have incorporated designers -the Spanish Jaime Hayon or the dutch Marcel Wanders– who are creating special pieces for Lladró.
The company has already exhibited its new creations in specialized design fairs where lighting plays an important role, and has presented them in Beijing, Venice or Berlin, but the New York location is the first permanent one in an expansion strategy whose primary objective is It is the Asian market, with the next opening in Tokyo and Shanghai.
Lladró had a store for a few years on Madison Avenue, the epicenter of the most classic fashion in New York, but closed it during the pandemic, to reopen now in an emerging neighborhood such as Chelsea (in the southwest of Manhattan) that is expected to attract the world of fashion and creativity, but Rodríguez acknowledged that at the moment “it is a risk”.
The company considers that the United States and Japan are “mature markets” for its products, both traditional and more modern, while Latin America and China are the most promising markets in its medium-term growth strategy.
