The italian way

Expect the best that Italy has to offer at tile specialist Via Arkadia.

When it comes to tiles and stone, there’s only one country in the world worth buying from – at least, that’s what Ilan Maestro, owner and founder of Via Arkadia believes. “No one knows how to finish stone and tiles like the Italians,” he says. “I think the best finishes, speciality items and design innovation come from Italy. That’s why everyone in the world tries to copy them.”
Ilan Maestro, known to all as Maestro, has put his money where his mouth is: Via Arkadia sells only Italian products. “We bring in tiles from Italy and our natural stones, although they may be sourced originally from other countries, are all finished in Italy,” he explains. Maestro selects materials from around 30 different Italian companies. “We try to select three or four ranges from each, so we have about 120-150 different ranges in total. That means we are talking of more than 1,000 items, all of which are on display here,” he says.
His showroom, in the heart of Chelsea Harbour’s upmarket Design Centre, was designed by Italian architect Francesco Draisci, specifically to provide Maestro with flexible display options. “Every tile showroom wants to show lots of items, but it can look messy,” he says. “Shelves and drawers allow me to show many products, grouped by colour and finish, and to move displays out and install new ones easily.”
Choice is a byword here and Maestro prides himself on offering an interesting selection. “I try to sell an innovative, out-of-the-ordinary range of tiles,” he says, pointing to his aluminium mosaics, his digitally printed dot tiles, depicting movie star faces, and even tiles dipped in 24 carat gold. Around 70%
of his tiles are porcelain, including ranges designed by Piero Fornasetti and Maddalena Sisto, while the remaining 30% of his sales come from natural materials, glass and ceramics.
He deliberately targets the designer tile market and has done so since setting up his business in 2003, when he identified a gap in the market. “I could see there were few companies targeting the top end of the market, and those that did had a very limited range,” he says.
Having spent his career as a management consultant, including spells working for companies in the interiors and materials sectors, he was well placed to research the industry. “I realised there were many beautiful materials in Italy, but they weren’t
on sale here,” he says.
Once he’d decided to set up Via Arkadia, a name chosen to emphasise the Italian origins of his products, Maestro quickly settled on the Design Centre location.
 “I decided it would be the best place to promote my ranges to the interior design community,” he explains. Today, he generates 80% of his sales from designers, with 20% from developers and private clients. He has another showroom, Maestro Design, in the Centre, devoted to wood flooring, most of which is from, you’ve guessed it, Italy, and another Via Arkadia showroom, now run by his son Toby, in Hampstead, plus a warehouse in Watford. “We keep the main items in stock, but this is always a problem in our industry. One item can come in five different sizes in three different finishes, so there is often a minimum of 15 variations for just one product. And, whenever I have the 60 x 60mm in stock, I always get orders for the 30 x 30mm. That’s the way it goes,” he laughs.
Maestro’s father originally came from Milan and his mother from Tel Aviv. Although he has lived in the UK since 1988, Maestro gained his degree in engineering while living in the USA.
Today, he deliberately targets an international audience. “We try to cater for different types of clientele, whatever their taste,” he says. From matt, natural finishes to gloss, gold and Murano glass, you’re likely to find it here in a setting that is quite deliberately Italian in feel – from the tiny cups of espresso to staff talking in Italian. The selected Milldue and Rapsel bathroom products displayed alongside the tiles are, of course, Italian too.
“Design and innovation – that’s how the Italians compete,” he says. “They cannot compete with the Far East and Turkey on price,” says Maestro. “So the only way for the Italians to stay ahead is on design, finishes and innovation. And that’s what they do so well.”