The growth of Italian Districts

Next post Monday November 7th

Some figures sometime can help to take decision, to make up one’s mind.

Why should one invest to sell into the Italian market?

We have seen in our previous posts both the different mentality you have to face if you want to approach Italian clients, so I’d like today in this post to list all the recent figures that should be considered.

Every quarter the Intesa San Paolo Monitor uses to publish a study about the state of the technological districts. The last one, dated September 2011, showed a great increase in exporting: more than 2,2 billion euros more than in 2010, a growth of 12,9%, the fifth two digit growth in a row for Italian companies.

The main districts that improved their export sales are the following ones:

• leather and shoes in Tuscany and around Fermo (Marche)
• textile industry (Biella)
• mechanical industry (North East)
• packaging industry (Bologna)

What is relevant is that about the half of the districts totally recover what they lost during the harsh crisis (2008 and 2009) thus reaching the same level of export they had before the crisis.

Italy may not be Germany, but the SME, once more I say the true backbone of Italy, is growing rapidly and with innovation, and creativity: you cannot increase export this way if you are not able to compete smartly.

Just one word about the concept of districts: the Italian industry presents a lot of “island” where you can find several manufacturing companies producing the same product or a very similar one. A concentration of companies that represents the best producers of that kind of product. Just to name some (North to South):

• Textile around Biella, Vercelli, Novara
• Taps and valves around Borgomanero
• Silk in the Como area
• Gold and jewelry  close to Vicenza
• Mechanical components along the via Emilia between Parma and Bologna
• Leather in Tuscany
• Shoes around Fermo

and many more.