PJL-29

Raffaello: ancient Florentine embroidery revisited in a modern key

Raffaello, the new product launched on the market in April of this year by Foscart S.r.l., offers a new interpretation of the paper table napkin.

Maura Leonardi

Founded in 1984 by Cav. Giovanni Scalco (Knight of Labor), Foscart S.r.l. – today managed by sons Stefano, Francesco and Claudio – has all the virtues typical of a family-run business. Long-standing experience, accurate quality controls, innovative strength, loyalty, personal commitment, individual responsibility and effective service for customers. For over 20 years, the company offers tissue products both for the industrial segment as well as for the consumer one. Large industrial rolls, examination bed sheets, toilet rolls, kitchen towels and table napkins represent the product portfolio of the company, headquartered in the Italian city of Vicenza. A complete range that has followed the company’s expansion policy brought forth in the course of the years, highlighting the careful attention that Foscart places on innovation.


THE STRATEGIC CHOICE TO FOCUS ON CONSTANT PRODUCT INNOVATION has always been dictated by the will to offer its customers high quality toilet rolls, kitchen towels and table napkins. An ambitious objective, attained through the investment in converting and packaging machines that have allowed Foscart to create and develop a complete range of products that includes the brands JOB, for the professional segment, Gioia and Delfino for the consumer segment, the line of table napkins called “Ricamo Fiorentino” (“Florentine Embroidery”) produced and sold by Foscart both in the industrial and consumer channels.

What makes the company an entrepreneurial jewel 100% made-in-Italy is the dedication and commitment with which the commercial staff daily faces the challenges of a market that is becoming increasingly more complex and saturated. Proposing novelties in the realm of toilet rolls and kitchen towels is taken for granted and creates no interest on the part of buyers, not to mention retailers. For this reason, investing in new technology for folded products proved to be a winning alternative that has given Foscart the opportunity to conquer new market shares, arousing the interest of buyers and at the same time creating an interesting market niche.


THE RAFFAELLO TABLE NAPKIN, LAUNCHED ON THE MARKET IN APRIL, redesigns the concept of the traditional tissue table napkin, sanctioning a new way to interpret the product. Softness, strength and uniqueness are the three key elements that distinguish it. Created with the intention of proposing an alternative to products currently present on the market, Raffaello represents the union between a refined tissue and the new technology developed by Foscart, in collaboration with Fabio Perini S.p.A.


STARTING WITH THE SUCCESS ENCOUNTERED BY THE RICAMO FIORENTINO BRAND, appreciated for its characteristics of elegance and softness, the company decided to invest in a new technique that increases the added value of the finished product. Ricamo Fiorentino comes in different colors and has registered growing interest by buyers thanks to the fact that it reproduces the classical Florentine embroidery, making it an uncommon table napkin, perfect to replace the cloth one, even for the most important occasions. The embroidery makes this napkin unique and unmistakable. And being unique and inimitable is also Foscart’s strategy, always aiming at answering the changing needs of the market by creating ad hoc solutions that even anticipate consumers’ requests. And to defend its originality, Foscart has registered the trademark and the utility model at European level. Because it is the embroidery that makes the difference in Raffaello.


HOW WAS RAFFAELLO BORN? “The desire to innovate the folded products segment led us to invest in a new converting technology for table napkins, trying to obtain a softer, bulkier product. At the same time, we focused on creating a napkin capable of attracting consumers’ attention not only for the above two features, but also for its aesthetic aspect. Now, some months from the launch of the product and following the positive response by customers, we are very satisfied with the results”, informs Claudio Scalco, sales director at Foscart.

The napkin is produced on a folding machine model Fold 8.5, Bold version (produced by Fabio Perini S.p.A.) with Deco-Embossing technology. And it is indeed this particular technology that makes the difference, in that it confers an elegant embossing to the product, original and above all with a 3D effect that makes it totally different from other napkins on the market. Raffaello is available in several colors: the classical white version and black as well as new, trendy colors. The classical white product is more popular thanks to its simple but at the same time elegant look, perfect for the traditional market. The black version and the other versions in bright colors are instead dedicated to the market niche that loves novelty and recognizes in this napkin a lively, trendy, stylish aspect. The compact format together with softness and strength, as well as its very name – Raffaello – make this folded product unique and unmistakable.

“Raffello is born from the desire to create something new. The embroidery effect obtained through relief embossing aims at representing a painting. This is why we chose this name – Raffaello – one of the greatest artists of the XVI century. The advert campaign, too, focused on the similarities between a painting and the napkin. Furthermore, the use of the letters RF (Ricamo Fiorentino) in the name recalls Florentine embroidery, a well-known product on the market, synonymous of quality”, explains Claudio Scalco.

For Foscart, the new napkin represents the main reference product of its folded range, and confirms the innovation strategy brought forth by the company, for over forty years dedicated to the quest for new solutions characterized by the spirit of entrepreneurial dedication and the research for quality. And these features represent the main ideals of this company, determined not to give in to the difficulties that the tissue market is currently facing today. •

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