There is in Italy a world of small and medium-sized enterprises that is never talked about. Hundreds of SMEs that are often not identified by the radars of analysts and journalists because they represent a complex, concentrated reality, often without press offices and social media managers capable of making their name known nationally and abroad. Yet they constitute the best of Italian industry and often contribute to the development of the industry second manufacturing power in Europe. Based on the data, in the worst years of the financial crisis, the same ones that brought our country to the brink of deindustrialization helped to keep one of the pillars on which Italy stands up.
To prove it is also a survey by the ItalyPost Study Centre published by Corriere della Sera. The study analyzes SMEs with a turnover of between 20 and 120 million euros over a precise period of time: from 2010 to 2016, ie in the years of the global economic crisis.
Well, although the effects of the recession have made themselves particularly felt on our industry, the analysis has identified some companies that are defined TOP Performer. According to the pages of the Corsera, at national level there are 500 "champion companies" with numbers that are certainly not comparable to the big ones, but nonetheless capable of producing an aggregate turnover of almost 22 billion dollars.
Going into detail, we are talking about a microcosm of companies that in six years have recorded a compound annual growth rate of 13,03%, with a Roe of 19,55% and a profitability of approximately 4,3 million euro. All together, they employ over 77 people. Not only that, these 500 SMEs also have another fundamental characteristic in common: most of the profits made – and we are talking about 7,3 billion from 2010 to 2016 – are reinvested, often even within the same company.
Remarkable figures, which become even more interesting if one takes into account the fact that they were achieved in the worst years of the crisis. In short, within the Italian industry there are "champions" that perhaps it would be worth keeping an eye on, also because they represent the greatest hope for the future development of manufacturing in the Belpaese.
