Parkemo: The High Level Crafsmanship of our Parquets

Thanks to the vision and perseverance of its founder, the story of Parkemo has made it an established player in the high-bracket parquet market.

10.01.2019

It was just after WWII when young Ciro Zanol, just out of his teens, left Italy to "seek his fortune" abroad. He decided to go to Paris at the invitation of his uncle, who had a carpentry shop. Ciro's father, my grandfather, was also a carpenter. Ours was a family with "blood-ties in wood”, if I can put it like that.

Ciro remained in Paris for a while, where he honed his skills, before returning home with renewed energy, determined to learn the fine art of parquetry.

It was then that he began working as a "yard boy" for a company that manufactured and sold wood products. He worked there for a number of years, gaining extensive experience laying various kinds of flooring including solid wood, laminated parquet and linoleum. A few years and several thousand square metres of flooring later, Ciro decided to take the leap and started his own business, producing and installing his own high-grade parquets.

By the time I, Marvi, joined my father, he was still the sole director of the company. I remember the times when my sister and I literally “picked off” the glue from his hands with toothpicks. I’ll never forget the smell of paint in the small company van, and various kinds of tools that I played with, including wood and parquet offcuts that my sister and I used to build toy houses.  

I remember customers coming and going from our house, and the first group of artisans who stood by Ciro’s side as his business grew, as the market in high-grade parquet floorings expanded.

I remember how my mum would come to the office after work to help dad, taking care of the administration. When the time came, she left her day job and took over all the commercial, tax and administrative responsibilities. This was the 1980's: at the time of the market boom in wooden floorings!

Ciro, the visionary, was quick to recognise the future of high-grade wooden flooring: the 3-ply parquet! My German speaking mum, Floriana, was able to secure the exclusive import license for what was then a new Austrian product. Together they were about to open up the lucrative Italian market for the new large-format, multi-ply wooden flooring!

The Austrian company that produced it also started as a small family-run business. Initially making profiles, it later developed into a significant player in the wooden flooring market. It was Ciro and Floriana, who opened up the market in Italy for this new product and pioneered the marketing, sale and installation of high-grade parquets.

At the end of our cooperation with the Austrians twenty years later, there came another major turn of events. Parkemo began manufacturing its own parquets in a factory in Piera di Tesero, in the Val di Fiemme. A team of workers was hired to man the first production line, the number of administrative staff was increased and a sales and marketing network was established. Parkemo expanded as a brand name and started establishing itself in the wooden flooring market. No longer just an importer and distributor, it now also manufactured its own high-grade parquets.

It was thanks to Ciro’s vision to start manufacturing that Parkemo grew in size and was able to respond to specific product and market demands. This couldn’t have been achieved if it would have remained solely a distributor of standard products. Over the years, our production line has expanded and undergone numerous improvements and upgrades. As a company, we’ve continued to research new products, materials, finishes and surface treatments, in line with the needs of the market and an increasing demand for high-grade parquets.

Art of craftsmanship, customer care, attention to detail, innovative inspiration and new product development remain as alive today as back in the day when the young Ciro Zanol started his life-long adventure. Parkemo Parquets: a true story of Italian ingenuity and craftmanship, always ready to take on new challenges and pride in its ever-expanding, high-grade product-line.

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