CIERRE1972

This is the story of a man and his extraordinary vision, the tale of a family and its company, an account of an experience with a touch of the cinematic and romantic, and a journey about reaching out to the world.

It could be the plot of an Italian neo-realist film: in the early 60s Romano Conficconi, the 23-year old son of a poor family in the province of Forlì, found work in a local barber’s salon which he went on to run himself. After a few years, however, he decided he wanted
the security of government-sector employment. He gave up the salon and, for a while, worked as a barber in a sanatorium for TB patients in Forlì that is now the Pierantoni Hospital. In those years, Romano also had a second job: every weekend, in the basement of his house, he helped his brother-in-law Bruno upholster armchairs and sofas, while his wife and sister cut the fabrics with templates and sewed the pieces together. There were in fact 3 large companies in Forlì that dealt with sofas, so they had plenty of work on their hands.

Romano enjoyed this work so much that eventually he decided to quit his job as barber once and for all. He found a larger workshop and employed craftsmen and skilled workers, and the beginning of ’72 proved to be a turning point: Romano, together with his wife Cesarina, embarked on the path of an entrepreneur, with all the associated hopes and fears. In 1974 he created the name Cierre, based on the initials of Cesarina and Romano: two people who would then be forever at each other’s side - with Romano taking important decisions for the family and Cesarina offering him support and words of encouragement during times of difficulty. That same year he set up the company’s first furniture salon with its own brand of sofas, participating with the consortia of craftsmen of EmiliaRomagna and those of upholstered furniture of Forlì.