The watchword is only one, always the same but it bears repeating it: export. Or rather internationalization, accompanied by quality. Possibly thinking big, patenting successful brands and participating in large business groups that attract foreign capital. According to the research resulting from the collaboration between Smi (Sistema Moda Italia – Textile and Fashion Federation) and Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, this is the challenge for Italian companies in the textile and fashion sector for 2013: growth on foreign markets and dimensional strengthening.
It is in fact well known, and it emerged again from the study published this morning at the Intesa headquarters in piazza Belgioioso, that in this phase of recession the only area that is saved in Italy is that of fashion, or rather luxury. Yes, because if the manufacturing sector shows small signs of recovery at the beginning of 2013, it is certainly not thanks to the SMEs which, on the contrary, continue to suffer but thanks to the powerful driving force of excellence, of the best known brands and more inclined to be absorbed into large foreign groups and to focus its business on non-EU markets, i.e. those markets of the so-called emerging countries which will continue to support Italian exporters again this year.
In fact, exports are growing (unlike domestic demand which still lost 9,6% in 2012) above all in countries outside the euro area: even our historical partners such as France and Germany no longer buy from us, only the 'Holland while going beyond the borders of the old continent there is a real boom of countries like China, Russia, and also Japan and the United States.
The predisposition of these markets (which will still support world growth in 2013) for luxury is certified by a fact: clothing, i.e. the finished product, of quality and identifiable as made in Italy, has seen exports increase by 3,2, 3,6%, while the drop (-XNUMX%) of textile products was almost specular. According to what was agreed by Intesa Sanpaolo and Smi, that is precisely the challenge: to continue to focus on exports while waiting for the economy to regain strength (the forecasts of GDP and above all of domestic consumption are still negative), and to ensure that even SMEs can expand in size and market outlets.
In short, don't export only the big brands, also because the "small" market is also asking for new life: in 2012, consumption of clothing and footwear fell by as much as 10%, an absolutely unprecedented negative trend for 40 years now and very far away not only since the boom of the 70s but also since the stagnation of the last period. Another alarm bell for the well-known Lilliputian tendencies of the Italian system.
