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182102-Dunford
Economic Geography 82(1): 2759, 2006. 2006 Clark University. http://www.clarku.edu/econgeography
Industrial Districts, Magic Circles, and the Restructuring of the Italian Textiles and Clothing Chain
Michael Dunford
School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QN, United Kingdom m.f.dunford@sussex.ac.uk
Abstract: This article identifies the way in which a firm-centered, value-chain approach to studying the distinctive structure and evolution of the geography of the Italian textile and clothing industries (TCI) offers important insights that qualify the results of district-centered and commodity/value-chain research. Analyses of the functional profiles of textile and clothing companies and of the roles of design, distribution, and services help explain recent trends in industrial concentration and in the national and international fragmentation of value chains. These analyses also give rise to a view of districts as parts of an interdependent geographic division of labor that includes magic circles and delocalized zones of dependent manufacturing. An appreciation of these features of the system is vital for understanding recent trends in the performance of the TCI and the Made in Italy industries more generally. Key words: textile and clothing industries, industrial districts, value chains, upgrading, delocalization, offshoring, retailing and distribution, Italy.
In recent years, there have been few academic analyses of Italys textile and clothing industries (TCI). Of these studies, most have dealt with the recent delocalization of economic activities to Central and East European countries (CEECs) (Balcet and Vitali 2001; Graziani 1998; 2001). Conversely, ever since the publication of the initial studies of Becattini and his colleagues (Becattini, Bellandi, Dei Ottati, and Sforzi 2003) and of Brusco (1982), a vast academic literature has dealt with textiles, clothing, and other industrial districts. Industrial districts are dense concentrations of interdependent small- and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in a single sector and in auxiliary industries and services. The literature on these districts tends to fall into two strands that are identifiable in the initial ideas of Marshall (1890). Marshall
argued that districts are driven economically by three mechanisms: (1) scale economies, which result from a high degree of specialization and division of labor; (2) external economies, which arise from the existence of shared infrastructures, services, and information; and (3) the availability of special skills and the pooling of the workforce, which, for example, allow individual enterprises to adjust their size and composition rapidly without jeopardizing employment and the reproduction of skills at a system level, as long as cyclical movements in demand and employment in different subsectors are not in phase with one another. Marshall also argued, however, that districts are not simply an economic phenomenon; they have an industrial atmosphere that itself involves the interaction of the economic and social system.
This article was derived from a four-country research project, entitled Regional Economic Performance, Governance, and Cohesion in an Enlarged Europe (L213252028), funded by the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council. Ray Hudson, Brian Haywood, and, in its final stages, Lidia Greco participated in the Italian part of this project.
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JANUARY 2006
1,560,879 (1,841,837) 42,412 (50,046) 27,345 (32,267) Wearing apparel Manufacturing Textiles 220,604 (260,313) 14,696 (17,341) 9,443 (11,143) 253,790 (299,472) 5,865 (6,921) 4,031 (4,757) Value Added in 2000 (in millions of at current exchange ratesb) 423,220 236,865 103,232 18,317 44,127 (499,400) (279,501) (121,814) (21,614) (52,070) 5,690 5,034 3,232 1,681 1,919 (6,714) (5,940) (3,814) (1,984) (2,264) 3,120 3,731 2,578 1,568 369 (3,682) (4,403) (3,042) (1,850) (435) 12,650 (14,927) 661 (780) 1,298 (1,532) 248,074 (292,727) 3,634 (4,288) 1,206 (1,423)
Milan. The fourth emphasizes the nature of the interdependence that results from successive waves of offshoring.
561 30 48
157 5 5
232 5 6
Table 1
France
Spain
Portugal
38 2 1
25 1 2
177 6 6
Table 1 (Continued)
Germany 8,098 145 85 Employment in 2000 (in thousands) 3,797 2,901 989 115 129 114 101 161 163 651 42 11 602 42 94 3,716 80 49 France Spain Portugal Belgium Greece Rest EU15 30,155 1,226 1,133
VOL. 82 NO. 1
Italy
United Kingdom
Manufacturing
Textiles
Wearing apparel
Apparent Productivity in 2000 (value added per person employed in thousands of at current exchange ratesc) 43 60 52 62 36 19 68 21 (51) (71) (61) (73) (43) (22) (80) (25) 36 40 39 44 25 15 46 16 (43) (47) (46) (52) (30) (18) (54) (19) 28 31 37 37 16 10 32 14 (33) (37) (44) (44) (19) (12) (38) (17)
Manufacturing
Textiles
Clothing
Extra-EU exports in 2002 (in millions of b) 124,399 33,574 4,964 (146,791) (39,617) (5,858) 3,073 1,310 532 (3,636) (1,546) (628) 2,372 820 269 (2,799) (968) (317)
Manufacturing
Textiles
Clothing
Extra-EU imports in 2002 (in millions of b) 111,345 49,468 7,849 (131,387) (58,372) (9,262) 1,770 1,243 386 (2,089) (1,467) (456) 6,837 2,278 70 (8,068) (2,688) (83)
31
Source: Elaborated from OECD (2003a, 2003b) and CEC (2003a, 2003b, 2003c). Value added and employment estimates were obtained or derived from OECD (2003a, 2003b). Estimates of the number of enterprises were derived from OECD (2003b). Trade data were obtained from CEC (2003c). b Conversions in parentheses are $ millions, at a rate of 1 equals $1.18. c Conversions in parentheses are $ thousands, at a rate of 1 equals $1.18.
Figure 1. Trends in TCI value added, 19702002 (Index numbers, 1970 = 100). Source: Elaborated from OECD (2003a).
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100.0 99.6 100.3 100.0 88.3 93.9 100.0 104.5 98.2 100.0 93.4 87.0 100.0 93.4 92.8 100.0 99.1 89.9 100.0 90.4 89.9
98.2 105.5 106.6 101.1 108.8 106.0 104.7 109.1 107.0 100.1 84.3 85.3 83.3 84.1 89.7 89.8 88.7 94.5 91.4 92.6 86.1 89.7 89.2 93.9 93.2 89.4 87.0 83.1 83.3 80.6 78.3 87.3 88.9 84.2 89.1 90.0 81.6 81.8 79.7 77.9 85.2 89.7 87.3 82.5 84.7 84.5 80.0 77.6 74.0 68.8 79.8 76.6 72.8 68.8 68.4 68.7 64.4 65.5 63.9 59.9 89.5 91.3 87.3 85.6 86.3 80.4 76.3 72.0 61.7 58.5
100.0 99.9 100.0 100.9 100.0 95.1 100.0 90.3 100.0 100.0 98.4 97.2
99.9 109.1 109.7 108.9 110.9 101.5 79.0 85.9 97.5 92.4 99.3 93.4 84.6 82.2 78.7 80.3 82.4 78.9 96.7 93.9 91.6 86.0 79.5 69.8 64.5 79.9 58.7 74.2 54.0 60.7 50.3 55.6 48.0 51.2 41.6 43.7
99.3 103.5 88.1 90.6 76.6 73.0 68.1 58.8 38.2 36.6 35.5 32.1
90.3
Source: Elaborated from EURATEX (2003b) and for 2003, ISTAT (2004a).
Table 3 TCI Employment in the EU15 and the United States, 19702001 (in Thousands)
Country Italy Spain United Kingdoma Portugal Germany Western Germany France Greece Belgium and Luxembourg Austria Netherlands Finland Denmark Sweden Ireland EU15 EU15 United States 1970 1,097 . . . . 1,013 . . . . . . . . 1980 1,073 431 694 355 . 648 573 . 116 104 61 66 37 38 1990 920 315 456 337 536b 448 372 . 89 71 45 34 28 24 21 3,160c 14 1,786 1995 819 255 355 289 314 . 279 148 66 49 37 18 21 15 19 2,684 15 1,647 1999 751 294 294 277 242 . 232 136 56 39 32 18 14 13 12 2,410 15 1,294 2000 752 290 263 251 230 . 216 135 54 37 31 17 14 14 12 2,315 15 1,201 2001 746 285 238 . 223 . 206 132 52 36 29 16 13 . . 1,976d 12 1,063 2002 712 . . . . . . . 49 35 . 16
2 2,374
12 2,157
Source: Elaborated from OECD (2003a, 2003b). a Estimated number of employees, which differs from the employment estimates in Table 1. b 1991. c Excluding Greece. d Excluding Ireland, Portugal, and Sweden.
VOL. 82 NO. 1
District and Main Centers Sector 3,600 (4,248) 2,700 (3,186) 58 24 2,104 2,570 30,400 32,515 40 3,900 36,360 40 1,300 25,000 144 (170) 74 (87) Employment
Province
Region
Biella
Biella-VercelliNovara
Piemonte
Varese
Lombardia
Lombardia
Textiles (wool), textile machines Textiles (cotton), clothing Textiles (silk) 2,850 (3,363) 4,191 (4,945)
12 15
Bergamo
Lombardia
Asse del Sempione (1, 2) Como-Lecco (3) Bergamo (Val Seriana, Grumello del Monte) Milano 37,640 20,740
Milano
Lombardia
. 165 (195)
8 11
Brescia
Lombardia
Mantova
Lombardia
24 17 10 5 6 12
Vicenza
Veneto
Treviso
Veneto
Textiles, clothing Textiles, knitwear, hosiery, clothing Textiles, hosiery Textiles, clothing Clothing
Carpi
Modena
Prato
Empoli
Prato-PistoiaFirenze Firenze
Toscana
1,150 (1,357) 5,863 (6,918) 4,957 (5,849) 1,100 (1,298) 5,165 (6,095) 570 (673)
174 (205) 161 (190) 129 (152) 100 (118) 102 (120) 92 (109)
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(Continued on next page)
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
JANUARY 2006
Source: Elaborated from Sistema Moda Italia (2003), Club dei Distretti (2003), and Viesti (2000).
Bari-Taranto
Province
Frosinone
Teramo
Napoli
The cluster of northern TCI activities and districts has been construed as a magic circle.1 The magic circle is a term used to describe the innovative fashion system that is centered in the fashion capital of Milan. The activities that it embraces include the manufacture of textiles, textile machinery, and clothing, along with shoes, machines for making shoes, leather goods, eyewear, cosmetics, perfumes, jewelry, a wide range of accessories, and related material and immaterial service activities (including research, design, showrooms, catwalks, magazine publishing, and trade fairs) that add and/or appropriate value. As far as its geography is concerned, Figure 2 provides a possible geographic representation. The figure plots travel-to-work areas in northern Italy that ISTAT designated as TCI districts. If these individual districts are grouped (and Milan itself must be seen as a district), it is possible to arrive at the district groups that are identified in Table 4. The map can be interpreted as a district of districts or district groups (a magic circle) comprised of Milan and the districts or district groups that surround it, including Biella (wool), Como (silk), Castelgoffredo (womens stockings), Vicenza (wool), Palazzolo sullOglio (cotton, buttons, and button-making machines), Treviso (knitwear and the Benetton system), Carpi (knitwear), Prato (wool), Empoli and Florence (leatherwear), and Milan (design and services). The domestic geography of the Italian TCI has undergone and continues to undergo significant processes of change. To identify the geographic changes, Figure 3 plots changes in provincial employment from 1971 to 2001. In 19711981 (see Figure 3a), there were dramatic declines in employment in the provinces of Milan ( 25,044) and Turin ( 13,939). These declines corresponded to small decreases in the number
1 This term was used by Vittorio Giulini, president of the Associazione Italiana Industriali Abbigliamento e Maglieria (National Association of Clothing and Knitwear Manufacturers) (Sistema Moda Industria), interview data, July 2001.
15
10
52 (61) 65 (77) . 6,000 2,000 400 194 38 310 (366) 130 (153) . Clothing Abruzzo Clothing Val Vibrata Lazio 20
Employment
Enterprises/ Establishments
(Continued)
Table 5
Sector
Region
Puglia
335 (395)
745
8,000
42 (50)
11
100 km
Figure 2. TCI districts in northern Italy. Source: Elaborated from MAP and IPI (2002).
of establishments, since the establishments were large employers. Employment increased in Brescia, Mantua, and Cremona in Lombardy; the Veneto; Tuscany; Emilia Romagna; Marche; Abruzzo; Campania; and parts of Apulia. At the root of these trends were processes of productive decentralization of work from large enterprises to SMEs and microenterprises: in Varese, Biella, and Bergamo, the number of establishments
grew by 42 percent to 60 percent, yet employment declined. In other central and northern provinces, such as Florence, Brescia, Reggio Emilia, and Vicenza, sizable increases in the number of establishments (48 percent to 102 percent) saw far smaller percentage increases in employment (13 percent to 35 percent). In 1981 to 1991 (see Figure 3b), a strikingly different pattern prevailed. Job losses in Piedmont,
38 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
(a)
(c)
JANUARY 2006
(b)
Figure 3a, b, c. TCI employment change by province, 19712001. Source: Elaborated from data from ISTAT (2004b).
Conceptualizing and Theorizing the Development of the TCI: Enterprise Strategies, Value Chains, and Industrial Structure
At the center of changes in the size, structure, and trajectories of enterprises and the geography of economic activities are corporate profit/upgrading strategies and their context. The context comprises not simply the local milieu, but a value chain and a wider institutional environment, while corporate profit strategies involve a combination of (1) cost-reduction strategies, (2) the development of new or improved commercially relevant products or entry into new markets, (3) changes in the relative weight of different functional roles within a chain, and (4) disinvestment and movement into another chain (Dunford and Greco 2006). The choice and impacts of these actions depend on their context and on the structure and functions of enterprises. As far as the context is concerned, in this article I concentrate on that of the value and commodity chains (Gereffi, Korzeniewicz, and Korzeniewicz 1994). The TCI commodity and value chains can be conceived in a number of ways. As Figure
Figure 5. Steps in the clothing product development and value chain. Source: Adapted from Lane and Probert (2004).
volumes of diversified products with short life cycles must be produced in the absence of a contract with the final consumer. To manage the resulting risks, a set of conventions have been put in place. The aim of these conventions is to match the supply of clothing with consumer choices in a situation in which the social validation of productive decisions occurs after consumers purchase the clothing that retailers have decided to stock. (This problem of ex-post social validation is a fundamental feature of market economies but is more acute where products have short life cycles.) In upstream parts of the chain for fashion, as opposed to standardized clothing, these conventions create a situation in which manufacturers of clothing, fabrics, and yarns produce only what has already been ordered and therefore sold. The way this outcome is achieved is through conventions that permit a preliminary commercial assessment and selection of projects that are materialized in samples, prototypes, and collections.
This process of selection starts some two years before retailers order stock. It involves the participation of manufacturers and a large group of specialized services (stylists, market researchers) in the exchange of prototypes and samples, trade fairs, showrooms, and catwalks and results in a dramatic reduction of the range of products (at the six-monthly Premi re Vision fair, some 60,000 fabrics each, with on average 10 color varieties, are presented) to a smaller and more coherent set. At the same time, newspapers, magazines, and other mass media help shape consumers preferences, aligning them with the industrial choices that the sector makes. Once the range is narrowed down, retailers decide on the size and composition of their orders, and production starts with lead times of a few weeks at each successive point in the chain. After the receipt of the orders, the next stage is the manufacture and assembly of the selected products. This stage involves a sepa-
The Structure of the TCI: Mergers, Takeovers, and the Size Distribution of Firms
The reasons for the size distribution of firms include the general market and technological factors that were identified in the previous section. A number of factors that are specific to Italy (Dunford and Greco 2006) explain why Italian firms are smaller than other European firms. Most important are two factors. The first is the special status (special role of craft enterprises identified in the Italian Constitution) and special advantages of artisans and SMEs (such as the exemption of firms with fewer than 15 employees from the application of the Statuto dei Lavoratori of 1970), along with the political influence of the associations that represent their interests. The consequence is a generous regime of incentives and protection that played a major role in the wave of productive decentralization in the 1970s, when economic activities were transferred from large firms in traditional industrial areas to microenterprises in areas of new industrial growth (see Figure 3a). The second was the regular depreciation of the Italian lira that helped make Italian SMEs and craft enterprises that undertook little research competitive on export markets. This picture is a partial one, however. In spite of the predominance of SMEs, a small number of large enterprises account for a large percentage of turnover (see EURATEX 2003a). The degree of concentration varies considerably from one country to another and is generally smaller in Italy than in most other EU15 countries. Table 6 identifies the largest EU15 TCI companies and shows that a small number of large companies account for relatively high shares of national turnover. In most countries, the top clothing companies accounted for a larger share of the turnover in 2001 than did the equivalent number of top textile
VOL. 82 NO. 1
Textiles
Company TD
Activity
Country
C C TO
TO C
TD TD D D D D D D D D
D D
Benetton Gruppo Gruppo Marzotto SpA Coats Viyella Chargeurs Textile Daun & Cie Hartmann Gruppe Somfy International (Damart) Gamma Holding Text Freudenberg Nonwovens Gruppo Tessile Miroglio Albany International Oy Ermengildo Zegna Holdit Ahlstrom Fibre Composites KAP Beteilungs AG Porcher Textile Balta Groupe Sit Fin Kansas Odense Gruppo Bonazzi SCA Hygiene Products D
Italy Italy UK France Germany Germany France Netherlands Germany Italy Finland Italy Finland Germany France Belgium Italy Denmark Italy Sweden
1,980 1,722 1,464 1,229 1,180 1,150 974 906 884 842 837 686 665 623 579 548 540 520 505 490
5 5 11 8 8 8 6 28 6 2 123c 2 98 4 4 8 1 44 1 44
11 13 23 27 29 34 43 48 51 53 55 64 66 69 76 80 83 85 88 92
LVMH-Gruppe Clothing Zara-Industria de Diseo Textil Adidas Salomon AG Benetton Clothing Marzotto-Abblgliamento Armani Giorgio SpA Groupe Etam Boss Hugo-World Max Mara Fashions Fila Holding Vivarte-Groupe Andr Esprit de Corp-Europe Escada-Konzern Cortefiel S.A Burberrys Group Clothing Punto Fa-Mango Prada SpA Dewhirst Group PLC S. Oliver Gruppe Diesel SpA
France Spain Germany Italy Italy Italy France Germany Italy Italy France Germany Germany Spain UK Spain Italy UK Germany Italy
3,610 3,250 2,200 2,098 1,410 1,272 1,099 1,095 1,087 977 862 862 846 790 778 672 662 654 614 562
34 55 24 5 3 3 10 12 3 2 8 10 9 13 10 11 2 9 7 1
6 7 12 13 24 28 32 33 35 37 40 41 42 44 45 55 58 59 64 71
Source: Elaborated from EURATEX (2003a) and CEC (2003b). Notes: TO = textile activities only, C = companies that are also active in the clothing or making-up sector, T = companies that have also excluded textile interests, and D = companies that also have distribution interests. a Turnover estimates are for 2002, not 2001. b Levi-Strauss-Europe (Belgium), with a 2001 turnover of 822 million ($971 million), was excluded because its parent company is American. c Company turnover, which includes export sales, exceeds national turnover.
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Market segment
Medium
Low
Model 2: 1980s Market segment High Medium Low Lifestyle Classic Contemporary
Lifestyle Market segment Basic Valentino, Chanel, Christian Dior sold through exclusive boutiques Armani GFT, concessions Classic Updated Contemporary Classic Updated
Haute couture
Figure 6. Market structures and market strategies. Source: Interview data, Giancarlo Fubini, September 2002.
JANUARY 2006
Source: EURATEX Bulletin (2003a). a These holdings are generally active in the TCI. b Stylists, sports products.
(customer advice, returns, and repairs), distribution, and sales outlets. Offering a larger volume of sales, it also facilitated the amortization of the costs of operating in a global market. Market expansion was slow, however, and the space for competitively increasing market share was limited. As a result, acquisitions were a preferred means of expansion. Three main types of expansion were involved. The most common type were acquisitions in the same sector, with clothing more affected than textiles and knitting. Acquisitions to increase capacity and/or market share in the same sector/market segment were partly designed to increase the volume of sales and financial resources (although acquisitions could themselves prove costly and problematic) and returns on investments in brands and distribution networks. At the same time, the takeover of designer companies (in 2001, Gucci took over Ballenciaga and Stella McCartney, for example) was attractive because of the potential gains from license-related revenues and the advantages of holding diversified portfolios of well-known brands (a switch from a monobrand to a multibrand strategy). The second type of expansion was for luxury goods groups to diversify horizontally
into accessories or other fashion subsectors. In 2002, for example, Armani acquired hosiery interests from Miss Seana and shoemaker Guardi. These acquisitions offered the prospects of spreading marketing and distribution costs across a wider range of products (a switch from a single to a multiproduct strategy). The third type of expansion involved acquisitions along the chain. The acquisition of downstream service interests in ecommerce and distributive trades, for example, offered a way to expand sales perhaps through the development of a more dense network of shops and greater visibility. Integration upstream was pursued to monitor and control supply. Movements in the opposite direction permitted some groups that were confronting adjustment difficulties to downsize so as to concentrate on core competences or to dispose of unprofitable activities and contain debt. The final type of expansion was for financial groups to make acquisitions owing to the high potential profitability of the fashion sector. The net effect was an accelerated and irreversible global modification in the structure of the TCI. At the center of a number of these developments were Italian groups that
Source: Elaborated from OETH (1995, 1998, 2000) and IFM-CTCOE (2001). a 1998.
ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
JANUARY 2006
PUBLISHING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Womens magazines Model agencies Advertising agencies Photographic agencies Store location Visual design agencies
Show rooms
Trade fairs SPECIALIZED SERVICES Accountants and lawyers Accommodation and travel SERVICES INTENSELY USED BY FASHION SECTOR Transport and Employment logistics agencies
Management consultancy
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
TRADE
Figure 7. Services and the fashion system. Source: Elaborated from AMT (1999).
concept of a magic circle and of an associated spatial/territorial division of labor are more appropriate spatial concepts for analyzing Italys TCI.
section, I pointed to the distinct trajectory of Italian TCI output, while Figure 3 indicated the geographic impact of the transfer of work to a number of internal peripheries: the productive decentralization of the 1970s and northern companies delocalization in the 1970s and 1980s of the most labor-intensive phases of clothing production to the Adriatic Coast and the South. Whereas German companies transferred work overseas, Italian companies initially reorganized at a national scale. As in the German case, the aim was to reduce costs, although the quality of work in areas with traditional craft competences and skills was also a consideration.
A striking example was recounted in an interview in Naples (interview data, June 2002). A British clothing manufacturer went to Naples to meet a supplier of denim after seeing an advertisement in the trade press offering denim goods at prices the likes of which he had never seen before. On his arrival in Naples, instead of being taken to visit a clothing plant, his Italian contacts took him to a tomato-canning factory. After spending some time visiting the tomatocanning operation and talking to his hosts, the British manufacturer explained that what he had seen was impressive and of great interest, but that what he really wanted to see was the denim operation. At that point, he was taken out across some fields. In the distance, there were some greenhouses. His contacts led him to the greenhouses, and he was taken inside, where there were cut tomato plants. Among the cut plants there were tables. On the tables, in the heat, there were sewing machines. And working at the sewing machines were Chinese workers. More recently, delocalization has given way to an acceleration of the offshoring of cost-sensitive parts of the production system or of the sourcing of inputs, creating an interdependent international as opposed to national division of labor. This path may also entail a change in functional specialization involving the hollowing out of manufacturing and the retention of direct control over knowledge-intensive design activities and distribution, marketing, and sales, which are considered to be the core competences/ strategic parts of the value chain. An important cause of this shift was the changing external environment. One important change was the implementation of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), which provided for the progressive lifting of Multi Fibre Arrangement quotas and tariff reductions. Another was the earlier development of Outward Processing Traffic (OPT) and the post-1995 establishment of strategic and geopolitically motivated preferential regional trade agreements, which permitted the export of materials, fabric, cuttings, or semifinished garments to neighboring low-cost countries where low-paid, labor-intensive, and low-skilled operations
The move also had implications for the survival of the European industry in the face of Asian competition. Before the Slovakian investment came on stream, the MarioBoselli Group was quitting the container/full truck market and concentrating on orders for small quantities or with short delivery times. Today, it can meet these orders from Slovakia because wages are just two and onehalf times those in Shanghai ($250 per month compared with $100), whereas the delivery time is three days by truck instead of 40 days by sea. Moving to Slovakia, rather than to Asia, was also advantageous because it reduced the costs of managing distance and decreased scheduling problems, especially if materials are supplied and processed goods are received back. The combination of proximity and a similar cultural context makes it easier to send technicians. Without the delocalisation of large parts of the EU15 TCI chain to the CEECs, it will disappear, and in a desert nothing grows. What was vital, however, was that strategic and financial control have remained in Italy and in the west, in general, not the least as plants are markets (interview data, MarioBoselli Group, June 2001).
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