
Luxury Italian Furniture Showroom Offers Contemporary Designs In Newmarket
The furniture in Newmarket showroom features products from leading Italian brands such as Cattelan Italia, Nicoline, Lago, Himolla, and Eforma. Each item is 100% designed and made in Italy, with most products covered by a 20-year warranty. The store's collection includes dining tables, chairs, sofas, beds, wall units, lighting, and accessories. In addition to imported items, Ultimate Living offers bespoke cabinetry solutions, including wall units, wardrobes, and entertainment units, crafted locally.
Ultimate Living is recognised as a destination for Auckland designer furniture, catering to clients seeking modern aesthetics and high-quality craftsmanship. The Newmarket showroom allows visitors to view and experience the full range of products, including four German kitchens on display. The company also serves customers throughout New Zealand, with online ordering available for those outside the Auckland region.
The showroom is located at 96d Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, Auckland, and is open seven days a week. Ultimate Living's team assists customers with furniture selection, space planning, and custom design requirements. Further information about collections, brands, and services can be found on the company's website.
For enquiries, the showroom can be contacted by phone or email, and free parking is available for visitors behind the premises.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Free rent, free bike – but would you move to East Germany?
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Eastern block charm: Residential complexes in Eisenhuettenstadt. Photo / Getty Images Opinion Like many Europeans, you too have probably daydreamed about picturesque Italian villages where you can buy a house for just a couple of New Zealand dollars. Italian village authorities have been offering up properties for as little as one euro in order to keep their towns alive as youngsters move to big cities and the elderly have nobody to leave their rustic homes to. Facing the same sorts of issues, small towns in France and Croatia have launched similar schemes. And now the Germans are trying to get on the act, too. Well, sort of. In typical German style, it's not quite as wildly romantic as a one-euro shanty on a French mountainside. Instead, municipalities in rapidly depopulating former East Germany are promoting what they call Probewohnen, or 'trial residency'. Hundreds have applied for an apartment, at no or minimal cost, for several weeks. The idea is that they get a taste of life in the East and then potentially decide to stay. Goerlitz, a town on the border with Poland, has had a scheme like this in various forms since 2015. Other towns have caught on more recently. Last year Guben, population 16,000, started its own version – besides an apartment, the city will even give you a bicycle to get around on. Later this summer, Eisenhuettenstadt, population 24,000, will welcome its first trial residents. Other East German cities, including Frankfurt an der Oder, Wittenberge, Dessau-Rosslau and Eberswalde, have also flirted with temporary tenants. Tangible results are hard to come by. Surveys by the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development suggest 47% of the temporary residents in Goerlitz 'could imagine moving there'. Nobody seems to know if they ever actually did. In Guben, around 13 families out of 48 have stayed. In Frankfurt an der Oder, six tenants out of 20 signed permanent rental contracts. Some folk do love the idea. As one wannabe Goerlitz-er, interviewed by the Liebniz Institute, explained, 'I like Goerlitz a lot because it's still a city – but without those big city problems.' On the other hand, those crumbling Italian and French villages do conjure up bucolic, olive oil-drenched visions: baguettes for breakfast, quaint locals, romantic misunderstandings and sun-sweetened tomatoes, with lashings of red wine, for lunch. Eisenhüttenstadt, built in the 1950s as a model socialist city and once called Stalinstadt, offers a greying collection of Soviet-era prefab apartment blocks in a park-like setting. Good times for fans of Brutalist architecture. But would you really want to live there? There's something even worse lurking in former East Germany. It's here that the country's far-right party, Alternative for Germany or AfD, is particularly popular. The AfD, with its xenophobic policies, got at least a third of all votes in these areas in the last federal elections. In Goerlitz, the AfD – chapters of which are under observation by domestic spy agencies for their extremist tendencies – got almost 49%. Germany is already having problems attracting people to fill labour shortages caused by its ageing population. Around 400,000 people annually are needed here to remedy those. But at the same time, the most recent research by the Institute for Employment Research at Germany's Federal Employment Agency shows that one in four immigrants is considering leaving town. Two-thirds of around 50,000 immigrants polled said they had experienced discrimination, especially in interactions with authorities, police and at the workplace. Another third said they'd never felt welcome in Germany. And then, they add, there's the stifling bureaucracy, the high taxes and huge health insurance bills. Can a free bike and two rent-free weeks combat all that? Seems unlikely. Cathrin Schaer is a freelance journalist living in Berlin.


Scoop
5 days ago
- Scoop
Italy's Supreme Court Verdict Serves A Blow To Oil Company ENI, A Victory For People And Planet
In a landmark decision, Italy's highest court ruled that Italian judges can hear climate change lawsuits to protect people's human rights. This decision supports the appeal case filed in June 2024 by 12 Italian citizens, Greenpeace Italy, and ReCommon against energy giant ENI and its main shareholders, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A. (CDP), Italy's development bank.[1] 'The Supreme Court establishes unequivocally that no one is above the law and that the interests of Big Oil cannot outweigh the rights of people to have their health and safety protected by courts. The protection of the fundamental human rights of citizens threatened by the climate emergency is above any other prerogative. Climate justice is now a key concern for Italy's courts,' Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon said. The landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation will significantly influence all current and future climate lawsuits in Italy, as well as the protection of climate-related human rights already recognised by the European Court of Human Rights. The lawsuit against ENI, CDP and MEF, seeking redress for current and future damages resulting from climate change, will now continue before the Court of Rome. Notes: [1] In May 2023, the 12 Italian citizens and the two organisations filed a civil lawsuit against ENI, the MEF and CDP, - the latter two entities as shareholders exercising a dominant influence over ENI. The plaintiffs sought redress for current and future damages resulting from climate change, to which the Italian oil and gas giant has knowingly and significantly contributed over the decades. ENI, CDP and MEF contested the very authority of Italian courts to hear the case, arguing that climate lawsuits are not justiciable in Italy. Consequently, the 12 citizens, Greenpeace Italy and ReCommon appealed to the country's highest court, the Supreme Court of Cassation, for a final decision on whether judges in Italy can decide on climate cases.


NZ Herald
6 days ago
- NZ Herald
For a decade, a Chinese tailor worked 13-hour days making high-end garments near Milan
The crackdown, led by Milan's corporate court and the labour-crimes unit of the Carabinieri military police, has snared contractors linked to five well-known fashion labels including Valentino, Armani, and Dior. Loro Piana, owned by French luxury powerhouse LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, became the latest last week, and was placed under court supervision for up to a year. 'There is already a reputational issue in the fashion industry, which started with prices spiralling unreasonably,' said Stefania Saviolo, a lecturer on fashion and luxury management at Milan's Bocconi University. 'These investigations not only damage the brands involved, they affect all of Made in Italy as a system.' Loro Piana, part of LVMH since 2013, denied wrongdoing and said it will co-operate with authorities. The company said it terminated relations with the supplier within 24 hours of being informed of the contractors' existence. The fragmented, mostly family run structure of high-quality Italian manufacturing 'can pose challenges in transparency and oversight', said Toni Belloni, president of LVMH Italy. The group has strengthened controls and revised its internal charter, he said in a statement to Bloomberg News. 'However, areas of fragility remain, so we must work to improve our practices.' The fashion industry is one of Italy's biggest, accounting for about €96 billion worth of Made in Italy products in 2024, according to industry group Camera Nazionale della Moda. The vast majority are destined for overseas markets. Yet the tailor's case shines a light on the treatment of workers who make garments that can cost thousands. He worked from 9am to 10pm daily through to late 2024, when his 'caporale', or boss - also a Chinese migrant - stopped paying him for unknown reasons, according to the court documents. After repeated demands for his wages, a confrontation ensued. The employer punched the tailor and beat him repeatedly with an aluminium tube, the documents said, leading to a criminal complaint. Persistent Lapses Past enforcement efforts have failed to stamp out labour abuses. 'These cases have been increasing in the last few years, with more big groups taking control of smaller Italian companies and starting outsourcing part of the production,' said Roberta Griffini, secretary for the Filctem CGIL Milano union. Responsibility is sometimes hard to determine because subcontractors work for more than one fashion group, Griffini added. Britain has also cracked down on illegal sweatshops, particularly small factories operating in cities such as Leicester. A 2021 United Kingdom report found companies in numerous industries couldn't guarantee their supply chains were free from forced labour. For fashion producers in Italy, the supply chain should be short and closely monitored, said Saviolo of Bocconi University. Younger consumers in particular are paying more attention to brand credibility. Milan is the locus of the sprawling fashion industry in Italy, housing about one-fourth of the nation's 600,000 fashion workers across some 60,000 companies, according to Camera Nazionale della Moda. The Lombardy region's dense ecosystem of design studios, tanneries, and sample makers gives brands unrivalled speed but also shelters what prosecutors called 'a generalised manufacturing method' in which legitimate subcontractors parcel out work to micro-factories operating from converted garages and semi-legal industrial parks. Chinese-owned firms make up a significant part of this complex. About 20% of Lombardy's 10,000-plus textile workshops and factories are Chinese-owned, according to Milan's Chamber of Commerce. The area has drawn a large number of Chinese immigrants, driven by small-business opportunities, globalisation of the fashion industry, and growing family ties. A Loro Piana SpA label on a cashmere pullover. Photo / Alessia Pierdomenico, Bloomberg via the Washington Post Falling Sales The judicial clampdown in Italy is unfolding against a jittery global backdrop, with demand falling and a United States-led tariff war threatening to magnify export costs. The personal luxury-goods industry, worth €364b, lost 50 million customers in 2023 and 2024, Bain estimated last year. The sector will shrink between 2% and 5% this year, according to the consulting firm's June follow-up. Italy's fashion industry was already grappling with falling sales, inflation and international tensions. Brands squeezed by softer demand and volatile costs have doubled down on 'near-shoring' quick orders to Lombardy's workshop belt to protect margins. That very strategy, say prosecutors, is fuelling the race to the bottom that the courts are now trying to halt. Investigators traced Loro Piana's knitwear to intermediaries which subcontracted to factories where illegal migrants worked 90 hours a week and slept next to their sewing machines. The judges said the firm 'negligently benefitted' from illegal cost-cutting. The judicial administrator appointed last week is tasked with monitoring Loro Piana management's progress towards addressing its supply chain. The issues have been similar at other luxury brands, including Giorgio Armani Operations, Dior Manufactures, Valentino Bags Lab and Alviero Martini: opaque layers of small subcontractors, paper safety records, and a workforce of mostly undocumented Chinese migrants. Armani, Dior, and Alviero Martini were released of court oversight after implementing measures such as real-time supplier audits. The unit of Valentino, which is majority owned by Mayhoola of Qatar alongside partner Kering SA, is still subject to court monitoring. The Italian Competition Authority has also been involved. In May it closed an unfair-practices probe into Dior, securing €2 million in funds for anti-exploitation initiatives and requiring the company to improve supplier vetting. Dior, also part of the LVMH orbit, noted then that no infringement was established, and said it is dedicated to high standards of ethics and excellence. Armani Group, still under investigation by the competition authority over alleged unfair commercial practices, said the allegations have no merit and its companies are co-operating with authorities. Greater co-ordination In Milan, co-ordination has tightened with an accord in May between the Milan Prefecture, the fashion chamber, trade unions, and leading brands. The pact sets up a shared database of vetted suppliers and commits signatories to regular certifications. The outcome of the Loro Piana case for now rests with updates to the bench on its progress. LVMH's Belloni said the group had carried out more than 5000 audits in Italy and introduced a stronger control body. While the prefect's new protocol is a 'building block', deeper change will take time and a more collective effort is needed, he said. As for the tailor, the Milan prosecutor is now trying to get him hired legally, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing a personal matter. This would require the employer to make pension contributions, pay taxes, and provide standard benefits. - With assistance from Antonio Vanuzzo, Deirdre Hipwell and Angelina Rascouet.