Susanna Minotti, Head of the Interior Decoration Department at Minotti, was in Cyprus recently for the opening of a new Minotti Limassol showroom, located within the Trilogy Limassol Seafront complex.
Reflecting Minotti’s identity as a family business, she was accompanied by her uncle, co-CEO Renato Minotti, and her cousin Alessio Minotti, Research & Development Manager. Here, among other things, she reveals the reasoning and design concept behind the luxury brand’s new store and talks about the challenges and benefits of working in a family business with a long history.
Minotti has a long history and continues to be a family business, which you joined in 2013. What are some of the benefits and challenges of working with family?
My brother, our cousins and I belong to the third generation of the company and every day I have the chance to converse with my father and my uncle, who continue to lead Minotti as co-CEOs. Each one of us has a well-defined role, built on our own aptitudes and skills, but what unites us is a shared vision that goes beyond family ties. The challenges we are facing are very different from those that my grandfather had to deal with when he founded the company – at a complex historical moment when everything had to be invented. Today, our task is twofold: on the one hand to preserve what has been built with such determination and, on the other, to interpret the present with lucidity and take the brand into the future without distorting its identity. On this journey, the value of the people who work alongside us makes all the difference. At Minotti we have chosen, over time, to surround ourselves with collaborators and partners who are capable, passionate and aligned to our vision. It is a collective work, made of listening, mutual respect and trust. This is perhaps the real strength of a family business: knowing that continuity also comes through the people who choose to share our journey.
How would you like to see the company’s legacy being continued by future generations?
I believe that the real task of a company like ours is to continue to interpret the times in which we live with intelligence and sensitivity, just as it did in the past. Today more than ever it is essential to be able to grasp cultural, social and technological changes, transforming them into design visions that speak to the present and the future. Our aim is not simply to make furniture but to create atmospheres: environments that convey a certain lifestyle through a conscious layering of languages, materials and emotions. In this process, the choice of designers is crucial. We select them very carefully, seeking out interlocutors capable of bringing value to the brand and contributing to a cultured, evolved and contemporary vision of living. As a representative of the third generation at the company, I feel the responsibility to preserve the values that define our identity – tradition, quality, aesthetic sobriety – but also to guide the company towards constant evolution, so that our heritage is not only preserved but continuously reinterpreted with coherence and a pioneering spirit.
As Head of the Interior Decoration Department at Minotti, how would you describe the brand’s aesthetic and how do you foresee it evolving in the future?
The Minotti aesthetic is based on a profound dialogue between the identity of the collection and the spatial ecosystem in which it fits. Our daily challenge is to harmoniously interpret and translate the needs of the project, balancing the strength of the brand’s DNA with the cultural and environmental specificities of the places where our products live. Every element – from the construction detail to the material selection, from the chromatic choice to the composition of spaces – is designed to be part of a coherent narrative, in which architecture and interior design dialogue in a fluid and synergic manner. Our work is not limited to the creation of objects but extends to the construction of atmospheres and contexts that amplify the experience of contemporary living, respecting the sobriety and elegance that define Minotti. This constant tension between continuity and innovation is, for me, an inexhaustible source of inspiration, fertile ground on which to cultivate new visions that are able to both preserve the essence of the brand and project it into the future.
In your experience, what are some of the main things that today’s Minotti clients demand, in terms of the type of products and the overall aesthetic?
Today’s customer base is extremely informed, demanding and always on the hunt for exclusivity. Keeping this in mind, we are committed to guaranteeing the quality of our products and, as regards service, it’s necessary to provide answers and solutions in real time. On the one hand, we work to offer versatile collections that allow the creation of almost custom-made configurations capable of adapting to very different stylistic and functional requirements. On the other hand, we have developed a business agility that allows us to respond effectively to even the most specific or complex requests. Minotti furniture is characterised by a wide choice of versions and configurations, satisfying the exact customer request. The breadth and flexibility of our offer are among our hallmarks: as an example, our Roger system collections contain up to 600 elements, demonstrating our ability to customise each project with great precision and aesthetic consistency.
What do you consider some of the most exciting current trends in contemporary luxury lifestyle furnishing and decoration?
Nowadays it is becoming more difficult to make predictions because the world of design is constantly evolving, as are lifestyles, trends and technologies. To us, it’s fundamental to listen to the market, adapting our code to its emerging trends, respecting the cultural heritage and the evolution of contemporary lifestyles. But we do not just follow changes: we work to anticipate them. We are constantly on the lookout for those faint signals that announce new sensibilities, new ways of living and new styles. Our aim is always to be one step ahead, offering collections that can dialogue with the present but also open up new possibilities for the future. Our hallmark remains excellence, creativity and authenticity of design: values rooted in our history, which reinterpret the past to give shape to something new, capable of reassuring but also surprising.
What can visitors to the new Minotti showroom in Limassol expect to find?
The new Minotti Limassol showroom, located within the iconic Trilogy Limassol Seafront complex, which is a landmark for the city and recognised as an elegant location, conceived as a home that combines the relaxed atmosphere of the seashore with the vibrant energy of the city centre. Thanks to its large windows, the spaces are bathed in natural light, which enhances Minotti’s timeless furnishings. The project, entirely curated by Minotti Studio, which represents the creative department of the brand, is characterised by a warm colour palette, refined materials and different settings that evoke both indoor and outdoor spaces. The design concept behind the flagship Minotti Limassol store emerged from the local context, following one of the main principles of all our projects. Our objective is always to create authentic design destinations, capable of expressing the brand’s DNA at its best, while dialoguing with the cultural and architectural identity of the place.
Minotti has had a strong relationship with its Cyprus partners for many years now. Can you reveal more about the decision to further expand the brand in Cyprus?
The solid and long-lasting collaboration with our partner, C. Askotis Retail, since 2010 is now being strengthened even further with the opening of Minotti Limassol, our second store in Cyprus. This important step has been made possible thanks to the exceptional feedback received by the first store and to the strong bond that Minotti has built over time with the Cypriot market. Makis Askotis, our visionary and passionate partner, played a key role by investing in the value of the brand with foresight. With him, a close-knit team has contributed to promoting Minotti’s identity on the island in an authentic and consistent manner. This latest initiative consolidates the presence of the brand on the island and offers new development opportunities in a context that has always shown great passion for and interest in Italian design.
Finally, what are some of the main decorating mistakes that people are making and/or current trends that you think should be ignored?
Minotti’s DNA has its roots in aesthetic sobriety, timeless elegance, continuity in tradition and artisanal savoir-faire, with a great attention to detail. Despite the succession of different trends, our core principles remain at the heart of our design. Among the most common mistakes, I often see an excessive search for immediate effect or the temptation to follow flashy trends without coherence with the space or personal identity, risking losing depth and authenticity. It is therefore important not to be swept away by ephemeral fashions, such as decorative excesses or poor quality materials passed off as innovative, but to favour conscious design that combines aesthetics and functionality over time. Only in this way can the environment truly tell the story of those who live in it, maintaining a discreet elegance and refined stylistic continuity.
(Photo by TASPHO)
- This article first appeared in the 2025 edition of The Cyprus Journal of Wealth Management. Click here to view it. To view the full edition, click here
