Take your dog to work day: the benefits of being a pet friendly company
Exclusive interview with the border collie Kobe Del Pre, Atim’s Wellness and Entertainment Director, about the positive impact that having a pet in the company brings to everyone’s mood and productivity.
If you thought that the presence of pets in the office was a fad, you were wrong…
The pandemic has made it clear how much these faithful companions contribute to our well-being: from 2019 to 2020, there was an increase of over 15% in adoptions of dogs and cats in Italy alone. Data from ENPA (Italian National Animal Protection Agency) show that a total of 17,600 pets found a new home during the pandemic, while the Coop 2020 Report informs that 3.5 million Italians have taken a pet during the lockdown or soon after.
Their empathic capacity, their energy and their reassuring power have been for many almost a remedy without side effects against the little daily anxieties triggered by the pandemic. Now that the whole country is gradually experimenting with more flexible forms of work, their presence in the office can bring indisputable benefits.
Stimulated by the Take your Dog to Work Day, which is celebrated on June 26, we wanted to explore the topic with someone who know it well: in an exclusive interview, Kobe Del Pre, Atim’s Director of Wellness and Entertainment, talked to us about his role in the company and the positive impact that the presence of pets, like him, can have in the workplace.
Kobe at work
What are your main duties at Atim?
My main task is to promote moments of serenity, carefree and joy. Since I arrived in the company I have implemented small breaks that require humans to take a few minutes off to play with me in the garden, to take me to pee or to walk around the sheds. These pauses are useful to regain contact with the outside world, to detach their focus from work for a bit and to promote a balance between moments of productivity and relaxation.
What is a typical day for you at the company?
As soon as I arrive , I greet everyone with my morning enthusiasm! Then I go up to Stefano Del Prete’s office. We have a very close relationship. I spend a lot of time with him and advise him on how to manage the priorities of the day, especially in times of great stress. Then I go to my personl kennel, from where I watch collaborators and transporters as they come and go. Many often come to greet me and this makes me very happy. My tasks change according to the day: making people chase me while I run with a ball in my mouth, checking the quality of the soil by digging holes in the garden, being caressed by the guys of the office or the production site…
In your opinion, what was the main perceived benefit of your presence in the office?
Many do not know it, but petting an animal is by far one of the most powerful anti-stress gestures there are: what could be nicer than a furry cuddle in the middle of the working day, huh? Caressing a dog like me, or another animal, lowers the blood pressure and gives people a greater sense of relaxation. Then, with my enthusiasm, spontaneity and unique personality, I believe I have contributed to creating a fun environment, which promotes good humor and more interaction between the guys who work there. I’ve been a very good boy!
What would you say to other companies which are considering to become pet-friendly like Atim?
I’d say that, if they have an environment and a team that allows it, the advantages of having pet at work are many. Animals like me have an enormous ability to strengthen empathy, contribute to self-esteem and create a more relaxed work environment. Bringing more of us to the traditional work environment decreases stress levels, favors opportunities for meeting and dialogue, improves the general mood and also impact posivitely on productivity.
Raw material: why it is so hard to find and the impact on prices after the pandemic
Exactly when the markets start to ignite again, virtually all raw materials have become almost unavailable and very expensive. The “everyting bubble” seems to have finally hit us and, for a transforming country like Italy, it is becoming a serious problem.
The Causes
During the first months of COVID-19, companies canceled orders, waiting for the initial fright to pass and new security measures to be put into practice. In addition, with global lockdowns and paralyzations in all sectors, the extraction and production of raw materials also slowed down.
Once the acute phase of the pandemic ended, there was a rush not only to repurchase raw materials for production, but also the additional demand to replenish stocks. All this process has led to a global shortage of available raw materials and a consequent rise in prices.
For a broader overview of the current moment, it is also necessary to consider other factors: China and the United States’ fast recovery and rise in demand, the great post-pandemic economic plans, the energy transition, speculative activities and logistics issues – with the increase in shipping costs and unpredictable situations, such as the recent blockade of the Suez Canal and the new COVID outbreak which reduced the activities of the Yantian port to 30%.
The availability of aluminum
In this scenario, many Italian and European companies face difficulties to manage their procurement.
For Atim, which uses only aluminum from Italian producers, the second half of 2020 marked a constant and continuous increase in prices. The cost of aluminum has reached all-time highs since 2018 and the prices kept rising in the first quarter of 2021: + 18%, according to Finco.
It’s worth remembering that the EU produces only 25% of the primary aluminum needed for domestic demand. Thus, even though Italy is the second most important producer of the commodity in Europe, the demand from different markets and sectors is currently so high that aluminum is almost impossible to find.
What can we expect?
Last October the European Union created the Alliance for Raw Materials with the aim of making the continent self-sufficient. But it will still take years before we reach the first results of the newly established plans.
In the short term and with regard to aluminum, analysts’ opinions are divided: the less optimistic predict that its availability and the consequent increase in prices could become a structural issue if Europe doesn’t change its tax policies; the most optimistic believe that prices are destined to fall over the year due to the excess supply dictated by the Chinese production, which is growing rapidly.
Navigating this global economic Tsunami will require a great deal of dynamism and strategy, like never before. So far, in Atim we’ve been keeping our ship steady and on the right course.
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People, Environment and Society: the Ethical Principles for an Increasingly Sustainable Future
We are proud to present Atim’s Code of Ethics!
It reaffirms one of our team’s fundamental principles: change begins due to the commitment of each one of us.
Ensuring the ethical and sustainable development of Atim is essential to create a positive chain impact, which goes far beyond the company itself. Our collaborators, all the people involved in the production chain we are part of, and even the environment we protect in the best possible way benefit from this.
Our Code of Ethics has 3 main pillars:
The People – each person’s work and contribution is a fundamental element for Atim’s development. Guaranteeing the best conditions to carry them out with full safety, health and respect is our prerogative.
The Environment – we monitor and keep up to date with the latest technologies and procedures to ensure that our activities have the minimum impact on the environment.
The Society – transparency is a sine qua non condition of work in Atim. We operate with the utmost fairness and in compliance with the law, doing our part to create an ever more just and inclusive society.
“To convene the principles that have always guided our company in a solid document allows us to be even more transparent with all those who are part of Atim’s world: collaborators, agents, suppliers, customers, even the final consumers who choose our solutions in over 50 countries. This Code of Ethics clearly expresses our values and how we try to help preserve the planet in the present and for the future. When each of us does their part, everyone benefits”, says Stefano Del Prete, founder and CEO of Atim.
We invite you to read the full document on this link:
How can our furniture help us create better habits? Here are some suggestions.
Now that our home has become the place where we carry out all our activities, furniture becomes a great ally to strengthen those habits that guarantee our physical and mental health.
Since the pandemic started, our homes have suddenly become the space where we do everything: sleep, relax, cook, work, have business meetings, study, play with the children – the list is endless.
We were forced to radically reorganize our routines and spaces, adapting our habits and needs to those of the people we live with, while still trying to maintain the same performance we used to have before the pandemic lockdowns.
Here’s the problem: when we start mixing environments, we often start mixing our habits too. Imagine this: if you use the kitchen table as a work station, it is likely that your brain will very soon associate that environment with work activities, making it more difficult to detach your attention from work when it’s time to enjoy your dinner.
Mixing different habits can also lead to more serious consequences, such as not being able to concentrate, feeling more anxious, more stressed, thus compromising our well-being and, in more extreme cases, our health.
The good news is that mitigating this problem may be easier than you think.
A place for each thing and each thing in its place
In the process of improving our habits, science shows that the environment surronding us matters a lot. According to behavioral experts, a space in which everything has its place and its function is an environment in which healthy habits are formed more easily.
So, if you want to improve your work performance, if you want to stop eating snacks during the day or if you want to enjoy some precious “me time”, one way to do this is to associate specific spaces with specific activities.
There are so many ingenious transformable furniture solutions that all you have to do is identify the activity to associate with each space, making quite small changes to your home. Here are some ideas:
One solution fits all
The simple gesture of moving a piece of furniture serves as a signal to our brain that marks the beginning or the end of an activity. For this reason, a height-adjustable table can serve as a wild card.
Okey Dokey
When you start working, for example, adjust the height of the table to a comfortable sitting position. At the end of the working day, bring it to a center table position and take away your work devices. With this small change your living room becomes more welcoming again, the perfect space to relax later in the day.
Another solution is to install a swivel table that slides over the top of the cabinet. To kick-start the children’s remote classes of the day, slide te table and open it up to delimit a desk where they can study with plenty of space. Once classes are over, all they have to do is to return the table to its original position, changing the environment and freeing the space for playful activities.
Sestante
Keep what you need close at hand
One of the best ways to nurture a habit is to easily access everything that helps you put it into practice. The opposite is also true: creating obstacles and dispersion can be useful to mitigate a habit that you want to lose.
To avoid having several snacks throughout the day, here is a super simple (and brilliant) idea: store all the snacks in a single cabinet whose door also becomes a nice table. Every time you open the wardrobe, you will automatically have a table in front of you where to have a proper snack. Seating down and eating is a powerful strategy to consolidate the healthy habit of giving the right time and attention to what you eat.
A similar furnishing solution can also benefit your concentration during work or study hours. Keep all the necessary work related material and devices in one single place, close at hand, while using a folding desk to create a dedicated workstation. Close it up when you’re done and move your focus to the next activity of the day.
Desk
Out of sight, out of mind
Still talking about work: for our mental and physical health, it is essential to have habits that promote the balance between the time we dedicate to our job and to ourselves.
It’s easier to disconnect at the end of the day if your station is out of sight, for example. Retractable furniture is a must-have for anyone who wants a practical solution that does not require a lot of space or complications. A normal drawer compartment is enough to install an entire pull-out desk, which can be used as a place dedicated to study or work.
Or, even better: if you have an entire closet space available, you can create a complete workstation that opens and closes according to your work routine. In addition, the wardrobe door serves to further isolate you, contributing to the separation between rooms and, consequently, to concentrate more easily.
Evolution +39
These are just a few ideas for designing a home that supports a healthier routine. All you have to do is to choose wisely how to apply transformable mechanisms to your spaces. After all, why be a victim of your environment when you can be the architect of it?
Time to renovate the house? Create multipurpose environments with transformable furniture
With the extension of the Italian Furniture Bonus, 2021 is the perfect time to invest in furnishing solutions that make the most of domestic spaces
For those thinking abou refurnishing their homes in Italy, 2021 is the perfect year!
The incentive of the Italian Furniture Bonus, intended to furnish properties which have been reformed last year, has been extended until December 31th 2021 with a new limit of 16 thousand euros.
It could be the perfect opportunity to create multipurpose environments at home, perfectly suited to these post-pandemic times and the new use we make of domestic spaces.
Here are 3 ingenious tips that use transformable furniture solutions, able to make home spaces more versatile and also stylish:
Home Office is King
ShelfDesk Workstation
Desk
Oplà +39
The global pandemic has made Home Offices the main protagonists of our homes in 2020, but the new ways of working remotely will most probably remain long after Covid is under control: in Italy, for instance, 2 in 3 companies plan to maintain remote working solutions even after emergency.
To create a space dedicated to work or to study is now an investment one cannot renounce to.
For those who want an agile Home Office, concealed solutions a are a great idea. A single movement is enough to extract a large desk from the cabinet, while keeping the internal compartment free to store the comuter, any documents and other office materials.
The great advantage of these solutions, especially in multipurpose environments, is to clearly delimit the spaces and times dedicated to work: opening the workstation desk is equivalent to starting the working day, while closing it means disconnecting and changing the focus to other activities.
Enjoy the Open Space
Twice moves from one side of the island to the other
Space is never enough when you spend many hours at home.
Uniting the kitchen and the living room in an Open Space results in a larger environment and, consequently, increases the feeling of well-being.
Breakfast reveals a hidden dining table kept inside the kitchen island
Atim creates very useful solutions for the kitchen island. Its various models of sliding tops, for example, can be used in different ways: as an extra surface to place the ingredients while preparing lunch, as a table to invite friends for dinner, as a snack corner for a quick bite. Morover, it is also possible to transform them into a workstation when necessary, use the sliding tops to do homework with the children and even support them with home schooling.
Corner creates a snack corner that expands the surface of the worktop
Be inspired by Multifunctional Solutions
Another key concept in any home these days is the optimization of spaces. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city, where the available square meters are limited, or if you are in a spacious countryside house: the great advantage of multifunctional furniture is to use space and environments in an intelligent way.
Cook creates a real chef’s corner in the kitchen: cutting board, cutlery drawer and snack table. Three functions in one solution.
The usual cutlery drawer gains an extra function with a top that acts as a table for a quick snack. You can also take advantage of a regular drawer to insert a cutting board, equipped with knife holder and a practical basket for the mixer or waste. Or, if you really want to give carte blanche to your imagination, with the right furniture system you can turn the drawer into a coffee table to be used in the kitchen, where the space and the tables are never enough.
Functional is a container drawer with lid, which multiplies the use of kitchen spaces
Atim specialty is the creation of transformable furniture systems, made 100% of aluminum and with the recognized quality of a Made in Italy product. For 25 years we have been committed to shaping the future of furniture design and increasing the usability of spaces in domestic environments all over the world, which has made us the partner of choice for the main players in the Italian and international furniture industry.
If you want to know more about our solutions, get in touch with us!
Atim: 25 Years of Creativity and Innovation
2021 is a very special year for Atim.
After all, exactly 25 years ago we opened the doors of what, at the time, was only a very small industrial plant. A company that was already born with the promise of challenges and hard work in the years to come, towards the creation of remarkable solutions for the Made in Italy furniture industry.
Watching this story unfold has been a source of great pride for us. In these 25 years, the watchword of our business has always been Innovation, a principle that has made Atim a strategic partner of the main manufacturers of the national furniture industry and which has consolidated the great recognition of our production all over the world.
The history of our Atim is the result of many other stories: stories of the employees who have been with us for years. Stories from partners who believe in our proposals and offer them to customers in more than 50 countries. Stories of architects and designers who have found with us the solution for ambitious and surprising projects. In short, stories of individuals, professionals and families who have been able to enjoy products designed, developed and manufactured by us.
So, to celebrate 25 years of our foundation and all the achievements of this quarter of a century, we would like to share these stories with you. It is our way of thanking all those who have made Atim a strong company, recognized for its seriousness, availability, quality and efficiency.
Stay tuned for the surprises of the coming months. We have started the celebrations for Atim’s birthday and you are our special guest!
Best regards,
Team Atim
Create your furniture as you wish: Delia’s new and functional kitchen
Delia contacted us interested in transformable solutions for her new appartment. Here’s how she managed to optimize the kitchen’s space and make it as welcoming as she wanted.
At the end of September Delia moved to Milan, to a new apartment in which she no longer had the open space she was used to, but a moderate kitchen area.
Delia contacted us in August, interested in transformable solutions that would allow her to optimize the available space. She wanted a table that made the kitchen more cosy and welcoming, where she could share a breakfast or eat lunch with her husband. She aimed specifically at retractable systems, in order to hide the table in a standard drawer of the kitchen cabinet and use it only when necessary.
We put her in contact with a local hardware store, an official dealer of our products. Atim uses an extensive sales network, with resellers spread throughout Italy and in over 50 countries around the world. With their support, Delia chose and purchased the Transformabile Lunch and created a table exactly as she wanted: using colors and materials that complement her kitchen’s furniture.
“My idea of using the Lunch solution is one of the things that gave me most satisfaction in the renovation of the apartment we moved to. I bought Atim’s mechanism from the dealer that was indicated to me and I found a good carpenter who understood immediately what and how I wanted the table to be done. And here is the result: the first breakfast for two in the new apartment! ” – Delia
“Here is the result: first breakfast for two in the new apartment!” – Delia.
We are happy to have contributed to making Delia’s new apartment a more welcoming and innovative space. And we wish that life in her new house in Milan will be made of moments of sharing and of happiness around the table.
With Atim Transformabili solutions you have the guarantee of quality, elegance and practicality to create the furniture you want, in the way you want. Get in touch with us to find out where to buy the ideal solution for your home!
Write us to know where to find the nearest reseller
Here is ShelfDesk: working from home will never be the same
How to keep a high performance working from home? Create your home office with ShelfDesk, the complete space-saving and multifunctional workstation.
With COVID-19’s global pandemic, home working has become a must for professionals from the most diverse sectors. As remote work grows more and more, many wonder: how to be productive at home as much as (or even more than) in the workplace?
It is essential to prepare our homes in order to ensure our own performance. Creating a dedicated space for your office at home, where you can keep up with work or study requests with the maximum concentration and in the best possible situation.
To meet the needs of the current scenario, Atim is proud to announce the arrival of ShelfDesk, a complete workstation, consisting of a wooden cabinet equipped with a pull-out top, the right combination of practicality and comfort for those who want to bring smart working to a higher level.
ShelfDesk, the ready-to-use workstation
ShelfDesk is a space-saving piece of furniture equipped with an extra work top, which opens and closes as needed. When open, it becomes a retractable desk. Once closed, SheflDesk acts as a cabinet or shelf, optimizing the space available in any situation.
ShelfDesk is supplied fully assembled and ready for use. Furthermore, it is possible to install it directly on the wall or hook it to another existing piece of furniture with the use of its special Clamp kit or Shelf Supporters kit.
There are 3 versions available: Desktop, Laptop and Workstation.
In the Desktop version, ShelfDesk consists of a pull-out top without front, with an underlying compartment to keep your keyboard and mouse for example.
ShelfDesk Laptop adds a front to the extractable desk, which hides the underlying compartment, ideal for those who want a more complete aesthetic.
Finally, the Workstation model constitutes a real work and study station including not only the pull-out top with front, but a cabinet with USB / 230V socket, perfect for keeping the computer always charged while following lessons from a distance or attend business meetings.
“Atim’s purose is to shape the future of furniture design with solutions that improve the usability of the spaces we live in and, consequently, the quality of the time we spend there. We are good at creating new solutions. We have done it several times and we are doing it once again with the creation of ShelfDesk, the first line we’ve ever created for retail. They are space-saving furniture developed specifically for those who want to obtain a workstation dedicated to their work or study in a practical and smart way, even in small spaces. ” – says Stefano del Prete, CEO of Atim who closely followed the development of the new line.
How to order your ShelfDesk
It takes a single click! The other novelty inaugurated by ShelfDesk is Atim’s debut in online retail.
All of its 3 models, as well as the Clamp and Shelf supporters kits, are available on Amazon.com, with free shipping throughout Italy.
Do you want to improve the way you work from home?
Visit Atim’s showroom without leaving your office!
It’s not a virtual tour, nor an augmented reality experience. #We2You is an actual personal meeting at Atim headquarters.
As you well know, creativity, innovation and high technology are part of Atim’s DNA. We have therefore decided to patent a new solution in order to reduce distances in these times of social distancing.
We are proud to introduce #We2You, our new way to host personal meetings at our showroom, with the security and support of high technology.
How do the new showroom visits happen?
It’s not a virtual tour, nor an augmented reality experience. #We2You is a real meeting at Atim headquarters.
We believe that personal relationship is paramount, for this reason the revolution #We2You brings is the possibility of organizing reunions in our showroom that take place exactly like the personal visits we have always hosted.
Our new integrated system of strategically placed cameras features facial recognition and tracking functionality. Thanks to their high technology, you will be able to follow our every move and see the details of the solutions on display from different angles, while we explain their operation, their application or discuss which environment is preferable to use them.
In other words, it will be exactly like having a face-to-face meeting here at the company, but without leaving your office.
How can I arrange a meeting with #We2You?
It’s very simple!
If you are a professional from the furniture industry and want to know our solutions and commercial conditions in detail, here’s what you need to do:
- Write us an e-mail with your request.
- Once the day and time of the have been agreed, you will receive an invitation on your e-mail calendar with a link to access the meeting.
- Once you are connected, we will welcome you in our showroom as if you were entering Atim’s front door, and we will start our technical or commercial meeting according to your needs.
Contact us now to arrange your visit to Atim’s showroom!
Click here and send your request
Small spaces: how to create a practical home office with space-saving desks
Those who only have a few square meters available, fear not! Sometimes a single corner and the right desk are enough to create the perfect home office
Working from home has now become a widespread need among the most diverse sectors.
It certainly has its advantages, but to do it well it is important to have a dedicated space and, above all, to choose the solutions that suit your needs accordingly, both in moments of concentration and of leisure.
Those who have only a few square meters available must not fear! Here we will show how sometimes a corner is enough to create the perfect home office, a functional and comfortable space, due to space-saving furniture solutions that combine design, aesthetics and practicality.
Here is a list of pull-out tables and fold-away desks perfect for setting up the home office in a small house:
Concealed solutions: pull your desk out of a drawer
Have you ever thought about hiding a table in a drawer? The Lunch +39 system allows you to easily extract a 70 cm long table from a drawer compartment, giving more functionality to spaces of limited size. Lunch +39 can be installed in furniture with a minimum depth of 39 cm, normally present in the living room, bedroom or kid’s bedroom.
Once you have finished using it, simply return the top to the drawer compartment and make room for other activities.
Lunch +39 system creates an extractable table that’s hidden in a drawer
Even a 39cm-deep shelf can contain a pull-out table suitable for creating a space-saving home office. With the Mensola T-Able +39 shelf you can get a desk of considerable size (135cm x 115cm) with a slightly adjustable height, thanks to its telescopic leg.
Its light and easy-to-handle structure, made of aluminum, guarantees resistance and stability to the table, capable of supporting up to 100kg evenly distributed on its surface. Here you can really place all the material you need to work well from home.
With Mensola T-Able +39 a single drawer compartment is enough to apply an entire pull-out table
Increase privacy with a workstation that you pull out from tha wardrobe
When we integrate the home office into an environment, it may be necessary to obtain more privacy to ensure one’s concentration. In this case, even the wardrobe door can act as a movable wall, which separates without dividing.
Evolution is a system designed to take advantage of the use of the furniture door, allowing the extraction of a medium or large table from a cabinet. Available in different versions (Evolution, Evolution XL, Evolution +39, Evolution XL +39), this solution adapts perfectly to the different requirements of each project.
Evolution: the workstation hidden in the wardrobe
Use the internal compartments to keep objects within reach
No matter how large or how small, a perfect home office often requires one or more storage compartments where to keep magazines, books, documents, small objects of all sorts.
With Desk, simply open the flap door of your cabinet and voilà! Turn the door into your working table while, at the same time, you use the furniture’s internal compartment to keep all the necessary material to carry out your work.
Drop-leaf desk: take advantage of the interior spaces of the cabinet to work better
The same concept applies to Homework, system for a folding 1-meter-long desk, which withstands up to 40kg thanks to the strength of the aluminum guides with which the mechanism is made.
Keep items close at hand while you work on Homework
Flush-to-top solutions: how to increase existing work surfaces
You can also choose to increase the worktops already available by adding a pull-out flush-to-top solution. With the Oplà mechanism it’s possible to extract an extra work surface that is kept hidden in a drawer compartment. When necessary, a few movements are enough to take the top out and position it flush with the shelf above, expanding its surface.
Increase the work surface with the Oplà system
For those who want maximum elegance and design, the Oplà Folding +39 version keeps the mechanism completely hidden even with the shelf pulled out.
Contact us to find out more about Atim’s Trasformabili solutions and furnish your home office according to your wishes!