The Made in Italy that doesn't exist. Historical brands, symbols of Italian excellence have not been Italian for a while. A wrong story of sales and divestments: Uil and Eurispes tell it in the Report “Italy outlets. Chronicle of a country for (s)sale", presented in Rome by president of Eurispes Gian Maria Fara, who today in Rome together with the secretary of the Uil-Public Administration Benedetto Attili, who illustrates how, from 2008 to 2012 there were 437 transfers of ownership from Italy abroad for a cost of 55 billion, by foreign groups, to buy Italian brands.
This phenomenon already began in the 70s, when mainly companies from France, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom bought our brands, but which reached its peak with the outbreak of the crisis and with the appearance on the scene of entrepreneurs from China, India, Japan, Korea and Qatar.
The list of Italian companies, in some cases industry giants, which have passed into foreign hands is very long and worrying: ranging from Algida ice cream to Flora rice, through Perugina baci and Eridania sugar to Ducati motorcycles and Lamborghini car. These are just some of the 130 main brands sold abroad that are part of the database created by Eurispes and Uil-Pa.
But the real heart of the Report, more than the cold numbers, is the question of what these purchases represent, whether new opportunities or the beginning of a decline that will distort the Italian economy, which, despite everything, maintains a leading position for production and exports: at the end of 2011, Italy was in second place as world exporter of clothing and leather goods, third for the textile, furnishing and household appliances sector. Furthermore, Italy is in eighth place in the world ranking for GDP.
Yet all this seems not to be enough to keep these brands Italian, even in the face of real sales, as Attili underlined during the presentation: "We are inevitably forced to sell at a lower price than the real one", without considering, then, all the risks related to relocation.
What is missing is the effectiveness of a model that had made the fortunes of Made in Italy, that of the family business. “She is exhausted – adds Fara – the drive that had allowed previous generations to transform a backward, agricultural country into a modern industrial democracy, albeit marked by delays and contradictions. And at the same time, we haven't been able to take up the legacy, consolidate the results and use them as a platform for achieving new goals, for fine-tuning a new project".
The only way is growth, through landing on international markets and on the Stock Exchange, as happened for Versace and Luxotica. But, as the Report points out, what is needed is something that seems to no longer exist, "investments and a good dose of courage".
