It is not the end of a myth and it may even be the exception that proves the rule, but the new edition of the Mediobanca and Unioncamere survey on medium-sized Italian manufacturing companies, which specifically concerns the period 2007-2016 but projects to 2018 and also contains forecasts for 2019, presents a big surprise. For the first time in a long time, in 2018 the major Italian manufacturing groups did better – in terms of growth in turnover and operating margins – of highly virtuous medium-sized industrial enterprises: 15,1% more turnover for large companies against + 13,5% for medium-sized companies and +35,1% EBITDA for large companies against + 21% for medium-sized companies.
Gabriele Barbaresco, the head of Mediobanca's Research Area who this morning illustrated the results of the survey, which has now become a cult, together with the Director of the Unioncamere Research Service Domenico Mauriello, explained that the overtaking of large companies over medium-sized companies in 2018 is mainly attributable to the performance of FCA and it is not certain that it will be repeated. But, without taking anything away from the virtues of medium-sized enterprises – those 3.500 Italian companies that have a turnover of between 16 and 355 million euros and employees between 50 and 499 units – the results of the usual and valuable Financial Statement Survey reveal that not even the so-called pocket multinationals, which are often the pearls of Made in Italy, they can live on their laurels and that, if they want to continue running on the paths of innovation and internationalization they have to put their hand in governance. Corporate governance systems to be renewed to make more room for new generations and external managers if you don't want to witness the sad phenomenon whereby the founders of medium-sized enterprises cannot understand the fact that the company can outlive them and, remaining nailed to their armchair for too long even beyond the age of seventy, are forced to the witness not to the children but even to the grandchildren.
Having said all this, medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, daughters of family capitalism and driven by Made in Italy, remain the most dynamic segment of the production system and in the last 21 years have strengthened their weight by increasing the added value from 12,4% to 18,6. 14,6% of the total, turnover from 19,8 to 15,6% and exports from 18,7 to XNUMX%.
In other words, the 3.500 medium-sized industrial enterprises, unfortunately almost entirely concentrated in the North and partly in the Center but rare in the South, they are one step away from 20% of Italian manufacturingwhich in turn represents 15% of GDP, now dominated by services and the tertiary sector. And the lion's share is above all the companies in the three productive sectors that have grown the most: la mechanics, especially fine, whose added value has risen in twenty years from 35 to 39,4%, the chemistry , pharmaceutica (from 10,7 to 15,3%) and food (from 12,2 to 14,9%). On the other hand, the medium-sized enterprises that produce goods for the home and for the person are declining (from 28,1 to 18% of the added value).
But, faced with the clouds that appear in the sky of the economy and businesses, how do the stars of Made in Italy prepare to face a 2019 full of unknowns? With an effective image borrowed from zoology, Mauriello explained that, if one looks at the turnover forecasts, 55% of medium-sized enterprises resemble elephants (that is, they are stable but without relevant flashes), 15% are like the hares (still moving forward from 2017) oi crickets (they are at a standstill but will make the leap in 2019), for 8% they retreat like shrimp and for 3% they look like moles (they have gone down and are unable to get back up).
In general – concluded Barbaresco – “the uncertainties of the economic scenario at national and international level have led medium-sized enterprises to undergo a setback in 2018, through a generalized deterioration in market performance, and they show up waiting in 2019” but fortunately “the forecasts reveal greater optimism compared to the results of 2018".
