NTZ - Natuzzi

[warrior]

Last month My wife bought Natuzzi  sofa.

Being somewhat cheap I would prefer local furniture to Natuzzi.

But hey …  Happy wife happy life.

 

Naturally I looked at the whole business as well. Based on relative valuation metrics business is cheap. Stocks trades at about 2.2$.

Cash of $1.9 per sahre,and book value is  appealing.

Natuzzi family own big part of total float.

Pasquale Natuzzi(71 yrs old)  is current CEO. He worked on succession plan  few yrs back and new CEO was introduced  , however,  it seems that  the plan  did  not work .

His goal is to turn back to profitability. (we may or may not consider this as a catalyst.)

 

On absolute valuation metrics, there nothing to write home about… business is in red yr/yr. Period.  we may rightly assume that  this business being cheap for very long time  with the valid reasons , or value trap.

On the other hand  my wife likes  Natuzzi  furniture  certanlty not a good indicator -she  just told me that she has been  looking for a Natuzzi chair  >:( .

In my view  the business is probably  worth more death then alive , net-net.

 

Is anyone one on the board follow the business? I would appreciate your comments

 

 

[phil_Buffett]

1 after warrior posted his opinion about natuzzi, i found this article on gurufocus about natuzzi

http://www.gurufocus.com/news/230718/natuzzi-hidden-italian-gem

 

for me it is difficult to say wheter they can achieve a Turnaround or not. it is my too hard pile.

 

 

[siddharth18]

Seems a bit like Gravity Company (GRVY). Net-net selling below cash and the company cannot realize a profit. The parent company owns majority of the stock and there's no easy way to unlock value.

[warrior]

Early this year I happened to meet with Mr. Natuzzi.

We had a  long conversation regarding business, culture , life…

My impression is that, He is very, very  candid person.  at some point of our conversation regarding business, he got so emotional that  I thought he would  start to  cry.  As he said that The NTZ  business- is his” baby”.

His priority is to bring business back to profitability. in fact, he  does not get salary, takes economy class for flights…

Anyways, my take from our conversation re NTZ  business

1) Cost reduction …, main concern was Italian Workers Union , it seems that they have solved the problem with Union.

2) Innovation, the fact is that they have nice line up of new lines with all natuzzi  furniture, I believe it is about  50 new products for 2104...  Specially they  have new chair  Natuzzi Revive- very cool chair,  this is theirs “knowhow”, chair adjust to your body movement. most likely they  are going to  start to sell early 2014.  It seems that they may turn around the business, will not be easy. usually,  it takes couple of years to do that . They are going to present pretty soon the bussness plan re all natuzzi business, so we will see.

 

all natuzzi furniture is pricy  ,kind of high end furniture for certain clientele  . For me IKEA just fine.

The fact is that I got biased or so, few month

back  entered very small position, when stock  was trading less than what was cash on their balance sheet.

With those type of situations or  net-nets one might want to consider to invest as a basket approach. or as  Kraven put it” have  a good quantity of  cheap inventories on the shelf of you little store….” Something like that, I do  love the analogy.

regards!

 

 

[phil_Buffett]

Early this year I happened to meet with Mr. Natuzzi.

We had a  long conversation regarding business, culture , life

My impression is that, He is very, very  candid person.  at some point of our conversation regarding business, he got so emotional that  I thought he would  start to  cry.  As he said that The NTZ  business- is his baby.

His priority is to bring business back to profitability. in fact, he  does not get salary, takes economy class for flights

Anyways, my take from our conversation re NTZ  business

1) Cost reduction , main concern was Italian Workers Union , it seems that they have solved the problem with Union.

2) Innovation, the fact is that they have nice line up of new lines with all natuzzi  furniture, I believe it is about  50 new products for 2104...  Specially they  have new chair  Natuzzi Revive- very cool chair,  this is theirs knowhow, chair adjust to your body movement. most likely they  are going to  start to sell early 2014.  It seems that they may turn around the business, will not be easy. usually,  it takes couple of years to do that . They are going to present pretty soon the bussness plan re all natuzzi business, so we will see.

 

all natuzzi furniture is pricy  ,kind of high end furniture for certain clientele  . For me IKEA just fine.

The fact is that I got biased or so, few month

back  entered very small position, when stock  was trading less than what was cash on their balance sheet.

With those type of situations or  net-nets one might want to consider to invest as a basket approach. or as  Kraven put it have  a good quantity of  cheap inventories on the shelf of you little store. Something like that, I do  love the analogy.

regards!

 

 

 

great post warrior!

 

do you still hold your Shares?