We write at the end of our day so the answer is waiting at the start of yours

A time difference is either a nuisance or a mechanism, depending on who organises around it. Between India and Italy the gap is a few hours in your favour: what leaves this office late in our afternoon is on your desk before your day gets busy, and what you send in your morning is read here while there is still a full day left to act on it. That only works if the person handling your project is a fixed name rather than a rota.

We are not a manufacturer but a distributor: the furniture is made by the Italian factories we represent, and our part begins with choosing them and ends when the last piece stands where it should. In between sits what decides a project — specification, lead times, freight and accountability after the invoice.

There are nine of us in one office on the Adriatic coast of Italy, we have done this since 1997, and we work in English, Italian, Spanish and French. Every name below carries a defined responsibility and a phone that is answered.

Marco Olivieri, founder and CEO of La Mercanti, Made in Italy office furnitureMarco OlivieriFounder & CEO

He spends more time inside factories than in showrooms, because that is where you learn whether a range survives ten years of daily use — by watching how it is assembled rather than how it is photographed. He works the international fairs, from Salone del Mobile and its design week to Orgatec and NeoCon, to see brands and directions early enough to be useful to clients and design teams.

Languages: Italian, English

Andrea Bollettini, head of the logistics division at La Mercanti, industrial shelvingAndrea BollettiniCo-founder · Head of Logistics Division

He runs the division devoted to industrial shelving and mezzanine structures, from site survey through to load testing. He is the one person here who thinks in kilos per shelf and permissible spans, working in the part of the business where a design error hides nowhere. He runs the sites himself and remains the contact years later, when the warehouse changes use.

Languages: Italian

Mirco Cameli, quality and management control at La MercantiMirco CameliQuality & Management Control

He holds the certified quality system, the project budgets, the costs and the deadlines. In practice he establishes what something genuinely costs before anyone promises it, and when a further discount is requested he recalculates instead of reacting — which is why, when the answer is yes, the yes holds.

Languages: Italian

Antonio Consorti, design and project management at La Mercanti, office layoutsAntonio ConsortiDesign & Project Management

With the company since 2002. He starts from the same questions every time — who sits where, who walks past, how many people use that room and for how long — and opens the catalogue only afterwards. He builds the layout, selects the furniture, has custom elements made where series production stops, and stays on the project through installation.

Languages: Italian, English

Laura Olivieri, sales and customer care at La MercantiLaura OlivieriSales & Customer Care

A languages graduate, with the company since 2008. She is the first voice you hear: she takes the request, works out in two questions whether it is a project or a single purchase, prepares the quotation and follows it until it becomes an order or a clear answer — including when that clear answer is no. What clients mention most is that she calls back when she says she will.

Languages: Italian, English, French

Ida Raffaella Mecozzi, international sales account at La MercantiIda Raffaella MecozziSales Account · International Markets

A graduate in banking economics, on the export desk since 2006. She follows clients and design practices outside Italy and works alongside the management on trips abroad: when we meet a client or an architect overseas she is the person taking the notes that become the project a few weeks later.

Languages: Italian, English, French

Martina IgnaziiExport & Domestic Sales · Outreach

She works two fronts that rarely sit together: international enquiries and the Italian market, plus direct outreach to companies that have never heard of us. That is the hardest job in sales — calling someone who is not expecting you and having something useful to say inside thirty seconds — and it only works with preparation before the call.

Languages: Italian, English, Spanish

Giorgia De Ascanio, A&D client service at La MercantiGiorgia De AscanioA&D Client Service & Marketing Support

A languages graduate who joined in mid-2025. She works with architects, design practices and corporate clients: coordinating quotations, samples and finish boards, aligning lead times and budgets with a construction calendar that is almost always less flexible than a catalogue.

Languages: Italian, English, Spanish

Dalila MariottiExport Sales

A languages graduate covering international markets from first contact to quotation. She also handles the least glamorous part of the trade: reading the same specification in three languages and noticing that one of them is missing a line — a finish left out, a quantity that does not add up, an accessory lost in translation.

Languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French

FAQ

Do you make the furniture in your own factory?
No — the furniture is built by the Italian factories we represent, in their own plants; we are their distributor. What we do is choose well, write the specification, move the goods across an ocean and answer for all of it afterwards. On an import that last part is the one that decides the project: a factory in Italy has no reason to take a call about a crate standing in Nhava Sheva.
How quickly can I expect a reply given the time difference?
Usually within one working day, because the gap runs in your favour: we answer at the end of our day, which lands before your afternoon. For anything urgent, put the deadline in the first line and it will be treated as such.
Is English enough for the whole process?
Yes, from first enquiry through specification to shipping documents — it is the working language for projects in India. Italian, Spanish and French are also spoken here, by the people handling the file rather than by a translation tool.
Who handles shipping and documentation to India?
The same person who prepared your quotation, together with whoever organises freight in this office. Consolidating several manufacturers into one shipment is planned at quotation stage, and the document list is agreed then rather than after the goods are ready.
Do you work with architects and design practices?
Yes, and it is a substantial part of the work: specifications, samples, finish boards and manufacturer documentation. Designers need verifiable data and dates that hold rather than another catalogue.

How to use the time difference instead of fighting it

Five habits that turn a six-hour gap into an extra working day.

Send questions before your lunch
Anything that arrives in your morning is read here with a full day still available to chase a factory for you.
Put the decision you need in the subject line
Approval, price, availability, drawing. One word in the subject decides whether the reply comes tonight or tomorrow.
Ask for one consolidated answer
Rather than several small exchanges: with a time gap, three round trips cost three days.
Give a window for calls
Two hours in which you can pick up. It usually removes an entire email thread.
Say when silence means yes
If no objection by a stated hour means we proceed, say so: it prevents a project waiting overnight for a confirmation that was never in doubt.