Golden year for Aires, theItalian association of specialized household appliances retailers, which, on the occasion of the annual general meeting which took place yesterday, Monday 19 in Milan, achieved three important objectives, starting with the turnover which in the year of Covid exceeded 10 billion euros for 26 thousand employees (there were 8 billion with 16 thousand employees in 2019) and achieved a flattering image result with the return of the giant Mediaworld, released in 2017 amid controversy and winds of crisis. Third result, the European leaders recognize in Aires the European primacy in having planned and conducted battles of great economic and social importance against counterfeiting, the improprieties and tricks of world platforms.
Ediel has also become a European model with Italian traction, the result of an agreement between Aires, Applia, the association of household appliance manufacturers, and Anitec-Assinform of Confindustria, which has begun a virtuous path for the efficiency and digital transformation of the whole supply chain of Italian domestic technology. This is probably the most ambitious objective of Aires, since, as acknowledged by Hans Carpels – president of Euronics International and of the EuCER Council, which represents the European omnichannel consumer electronics retailers – the initiatives that the general manager Davide Rossi is following with particular commitment for years they have become a central reference for the programs of the European associations.
The association of European home technology retailers looks to Aires above all on the very important theme of the Level Playing Field – underlined Carpels – that is the level playing field between omnichannel retailers and brokerage platforms. Sales of household appliances and consumer electronics have seen increases across the globe due to lockdowns, but have also risen alarmingly online sales often not controlled, and under unequal conditions of tax dumping, social e Environmental Sustainability.
In the meantime, precisely in the most difficult period for the country, Aires has chosen to implement its commitment to innovation, efficiency and integration into supply chain processes in a digital key to support companies in the tight competition with the giants of supranational online platforms, which have long since lost the role of simple intermediaries to assume that of active promoters. The general meeting confirmed the leadership Andrew Scozzoli (Unieuro) and the steering committee, calling for the vice-presidency Emmanuel Cosimelli by Mediaworld.
Soon the world of domestic technology will have to face the difficult transition from the current digital terrestrial to the one which from next September will bring an incredibly greater number of channels and innovative services to TVs. I am over 25 million TVs which will gradually have to be replaced or in any case equipped with decoders. It is a colossal business which, together with the advance of services and smart devices for the home after Covid, and thanks to the constant attention with which the director general of Aires, Davide Rossi, is following government activity, predicts an increase in incentives for the purchase of decoders and new TVs.
Gfk announced that in 2020, spending on smart devices and services by Italian families recorded a decidedly high increase, by 17 percent, compared to 2019. This attitude so favorable to digital technologies had never occurred before. But precisely in these and in the coming months, a menacing cloud has formed over the world of domestic technology, that of uncertainty and often also of lack of strategic components to manufacture smart devices. There is a lack of displays, a lack of special components, a lack of chipsets that are fundamental for blocking factories and transport, the cost of which has in some cases increased tenfold. The latest sensational news confirming this difficulty comes from Samsung, which has ordered one million large OLED displays from its fiercest competitor, LG Electronics, the only company to produce them for everyone in its gigantic Chinese factory.
