RAK Ceramics’ Leonardo De Muro on the Roberto Cavalli licensing tie-up and the company’s luxury pivot
Corporate VP Leonardo De Muro on the Roberto Cavalli licensing tie-up, why the GCC leads the roll-out, and RAK Ceramics’ shift from volume manufacturer to design-led lifestyle brand
04 August, 2026
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When RAK Ceramics signed an exclusive multi-year licensing deal with Roberto Cavalli to develop tiles, sanitaryware and faucets, it called the moment “proud and defining”. Leonardo De Muro, the company’s corporate VP for Marketing & Communications, frames it as something more deliberate: the second pillar of a multi-brand strategy that began with Elie Saab in 2021, and a signal of where one of the world’s largest ceramics manufacturers now sees itself.
That self-image is shifting. De Muro is candid that the maker of 118 million square metres of tiles a year, across 23 plants and more than 150 countries, wants to be recognised less as a volume manufacturer and more as a design-led lifestyle brand, one with a Milan design hub, flagship stores in Dubai, London and Frankfurt, and the manufacturing scale to deliver luxury at the quantities a giga-project actually needs. But he pushes back on the idea that scale and luxury are opposites: scale, in his telling, is what makes reliable luxury possible.
In conversation with Gulf Business, De Muro discusses the Cavalli partnership, why the roll-out starts in the GCC rather than Europe, how RAK Ceramics protects both brands from dilution, and where growth comes from as the company sets its sights on 2030.
RAK Ceramics has just signed an exclusive multi-year licensing agreement with Roberto Cavalli to develop, manufacture and distribute branded tiles, sanitaryware and faucets. Why is this partnership such a turning point, and how did it come about?
It sits within our multi-brand strategy. We began our partnership with Elie Saab in 2021, which proved that a fashion house and a ceramics manufacturer can build something that works commercially, benefiting both parties. That success gave us the confidence to take the next step and move into the ultra-premium segment. Roberto Cavalli was the natural partner with one of the most recognisable names in Italian maximalism, and pairing that visual language with our manufacturing scale is a statement about where we want this category to go.
For us, this is not a one-off licence; it is the second pillar of a portfolio we intend to keep building. What makes it a turning point is what it says about where RAK Ceramics now sits: we are being approached by, and choosing between, brands of this calibre.
The agreement covers a strategic territory spanning the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the wider Gulf, Egypt, Iraq, Türkiye, Morocco and India. What does that geographic footprint tell us about where you see the strongest demand for luxury interiors and why start with these markets rather than Europe or the Americas?
Today, the future is the GCC rather than Europe or America, and the investment flows confirm it. Look at the residential surge in the UAE, the giga-project pipeline in Saudi Arabia, the hospitality expansion across the region driven by tourism targets — all of it is specification-led and design-conscious in a way it simply wasn’t a decade ago. Clients here ask for the brand by name. Egypt, Iraq, Türkiye and Morocco extend that same logic across MENA. India is a market of enormous scale where we already manufacture and where the premium segment is growing quickly.
Channel readiness matters equally. We already operate a direct retail presence and an established wholesale network across most of this territory, so we are not building distribution from a standing start; we are introducing a new luxury proposition onto infrastructure that already performs. Europe and the Americas are not excluded from our thinking, but you start where demand is strongest and where you have the distribution to serve it properly.
Roberto Cavalli brings a bold, unmistakably Italian design language; RAK Ceramics brings industrial scale — 23 plants and capacity for 118 million square metres of tiles a year. How do you translate a maximalist fashion aesthetic into ceramics without losing either the glamour or the manufacturing discipline?
I have built my career in Italy, and my experience has shown me how exacting that design language is; it does not tolerate compromise, nor should it. Tiles and sanitaryware stopped being commodity products a long time ago. What design and technology allow us to do today means we can produce surfaces that rival natural materials and, in some respects, outperform them in durability, in consistency, in format. Our slab facility running Continua+ technology lets us work at large format with advanced digital glazing and multilayer granule application, so depth, texture and pattern definition are no longer constraints. That is the manufacturing discipline. The glamour comes from the design side, and there I have a team, supported by our design hub in Milan, capable of translating any high-fashion language into a masterpiece that is able to perform in a bathroom or a hotel lobby for 20 years. The two don’t fight each other. They harmonise.
The collections debut at Cersaie 2026 in Bologna in September, with UAE showroom previews before that and a showcase at Dubai Design Week in November. What can homeowners, architects and designers expect from the first collections — and how will you price and position them?
The collections are still being finalised ahead of Cersaie. What I can say is that they will be priced and positioned as a product of this kind deserves: ultra-premium, at the top of our portfolio, and consistent with what a Roberto Cavalli product means in any other category. Distribution will be selective. Architects and designers can expect complete solutions rather than isolated pieces: surfaces, sanitaryware and faucets designed to work together, in the bold, expressive register Cavalli is known for. The UAE previews will be the first opportunity to see it, and Dubai Design Week in November will be the full regional presentation.
This deal fits a broader pattern: the Milan design hub opened during Milan Design Week 2025, new flagship stores in Dubai, London and Frankfurt, and a growing push into the premium segment. Is RAK Ceramics deliberately repositioning from volume manufacturer to luxury lifestyle brand, and how far can that repositioning go?
It is a continuous process rather than a switch we flipped. We are already a high-end brand, well positioned among the top players globally, and the Cavalli agreement is a continuation of that, not a departure. Milan, the flagship stores in Dubai, London and Frankfurt, the design hub- that is the infrastructure of a lifestyle brand, not of a volume manufacturer. But I’d push back gently on the framing: scale is not the opposite of luxury. Scale is what allows us to deliver luxury reliably, in the quantities a hotel group or a large residential development actually needs. Very few companies can do both. How far can it go? Far enough that we are recognised globally as a design-led brand that happens to have world-class manufacturing behind it, rather than the other way around.
Fashion houses licensing into home and interiors is a growing trend, but licensing deals can dilute a brand as easily as elevate it. How do you protect both the Cavalli name and RAK Ceramics’ own brand equity in this partnership, and could more designer collaborations follow?
Through discipline, mainly. Strict design control – nothing leaves without approval on both sides. Selective distribution, so the product appears where it belongs and nowhere else. And clear brand roles: Roberto Cavalli owns the aesthetic direction, RAK Ceramics owns development, manufacturing and route to market. Dilution happens when a licensor signs everyone, or when a licensee treats the name as a price premium rather than a design commitment. More collaborations can certainly follow. That is what a multi-brand strategy means, but each one has to occupy a distinct position and meet the same disciplined, quality-first standard. We would rather have a few partnerships that are right than many that are simply available.
The construction and real estate boom across the GCC, from Saudi giga-projects to the UAE’s residential surge, has transformed demand for building products. How is that pipeline shaping your order book, and how exposed is the business if regional construction cycles cool?
The pipeline is strong across residential, hospitality and mega-projects, and it is feeding the order book across all our segments, not only tiles. Construction is cyclical, and we plan on that basis. Our protection is diversification: a presence in more than 150 countries, manufacturing across four geographies, and a balance between project business and retail, between new build and renovation. Renovation, in particular, is far less cyclical than new construction, and it is precisely where premium and designer product performs best. Moderation in one market does not translate into a slowdown across the group. Moving upmarket is also a margin decision, not only a brand decision; premium products are less exposed to the volume and pricing pressure that hits commodity tile when a cycle turns.
RAK Ceramics operates in more than 150 countries, with major manufacturing bases in the UAE, India, Bangladesh and Europe. With global trade fragmenting, freight costs volatile and energy prices unpredictable, how are you managing supply chain resilience and protecting margins?
Our global footprint is the key advantage in managing today’s uncertainties. Operating facilities across the UAE, India, Bangladesh and Europe means we can optimise production closer to demand centres, reduce logistics exposure, and shift volumes between plants when freight or trade conditions move against us. That flexibility is worth a great deal in the current environment. Alongside it, we continue to invest in operational efficiency, energy management, digitalisation and product mix optimisation — the last of those matters more than people assume, because a richer mix absorbs input cost volatility in a way cost-cutting alone cannot. The objective is to protect margins while maintaining the quality and innovation our customers expect, and so far the combination has held.
Ceramics is an energy-intensive industry at a time of rising sustainability expectations from regulators, developers and consumers alike. What is RAK Ceramics doing to decarbonise production, and can sustainability become a competitive advantage rather than a cost?
Decarbonisation in this industry is won on the plant floor, through capital investment. Our newest slab facility runs next-generation Continua+ technology with a seven-layer horizontal dryer designed to operate on heat recovered from the kiln, which significantly reduces fuel consumption. We recycle 95 per cent of waste across tiles, sanitaryware, faucets and tableware; we treat and reuse water throughout the process, and Ras Al Khaimah is now home to the UAE’s first industrial carbon recovery and reuse facility.
And yes, it becomes a competitive advantage; Re-Use is the proof. It is the world’s first porcelain tile made entirely from pre-consumer recycled material, independently certified by SCS Global Services, and it won the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 in two categories, Sustainable Design and Materials & Surfaces. That jury did not make the award on environmental credentials alone; they made it on design. That is the whole point. When the sustainable product is also the better product, the cost argument disappears.
Looking at the next three to five years, where does growth come from: premiumisation, new geographies, acquisitions, or adjacent categories? And what would you like RAK Ceramics to be known for globally by 2030?
A balanced mix of all of them, in a deliberate order. Premiumisation is the fastest route to margin and to brand equity, and collaborations like Cavalli accelerate it. Then selective geographic expansion, where we have or can build the right distribution rather than simply planting flags. Adjacent categories follow naturally once you are a lifestyle brand rather than a tile company; we are already in sanitaryware, faucets and tableware, and there is more of the interior we can credibly own. Acquisitions where they add capability or access we cannot build faster ourselves.
By 2030, I want RAK Ceramics to be recognised globally not just as a leading manufacturer; we already are one but as a design-led, innovation-driven lifestyle brand that sets the benchmark for the industry. If an architect in Milan or Riyadh specifies us because of the design, and only afterwards registers the scale behind it, we will have done our job.
