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FINAA{CIAL 'III\1[HS
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Estratto da pag.

,ri

Value of being'Made in Italy

Italian businesses have foctsed on provenance and hr:nrry to stave off low-cost competition from emerglng markets, says Rachel Sandemon -fn Palazzo Stszzi. a Renaissanc J pakce overlooking Etortnce's I Amo River. t@EEiljE@l2011 atrd 7 per @nt

!n ZlXe, returBiog

to prscrisie lerrels in Z)13, according

The suge is down to the attraction of 'lrlade in ltaly" goods to the middle classes of rapiatly glrowitrg economles,

to trade grouP SACE'

# I 1|{ hinins focus oE to the high.end \] has been mirored beyoud the . \luxrrv sector. lr-J tuitv yoars ago, Giuseppe
turlng businees uear Vicerua, in nortb4ast Italy, to produce metal chains for the mass Darket. Since
then, the 7l'yearold whose two song are now taking over the busiuess, bas cut Btalf by twotblrds and shifted his focus to manufac'turing for the midmarket. He says he "generally pro ducee less but of higlrer quality".
Corrado, fourdod a midsizeil manuiac.

incluiling Erazil alat Cbitra Ard

whether it is sending turdfiue to &us sia, tertiles to Egypt, rubber and plal' tic ptoducts to ltrtey or winemakiag equipment to Chile, emerging marlets are prov;og increasingly important for

Italy's entrepreneurs.
also held on

-a.mr, scion of luxury shoe brand Salvatore Femagamo, is xplaidng why his shoe6 are "lfade ln Italy". Mr tr'emrccio's fathet, Salvatore, put handmade shoes ou the fet of Marilyg Mouroe and Sophia loren, lauren BacaII and Judy Garland. But hls son is sup,Bosed to be living in dlEermt
tihes, where rising Chine6e
and

qflY*s

fourth-big8est exporter of uechafical eusiDeeriag produqs thrtwhout the

a short-tem viewneeding to

to itg position as tbe

Ihe

country

remained Europe's secold-largest

Throughout the crlsls,

Italy

has

Indisn matrufaaturiEg power has put Italians out of business. Wheu Mr ternrccio meets the Financial Tines in December, he has anothet probleu on bie mind. He is Iraving to ask Ferragamo's wor[r6, dotted tn vi[aeBs and factories around Elorence, to keep working ilght up untjl Christmas day, almost a week longer than usual. "We cannot make enough to kesp up with the deeand frolo the Ctines, They want theu shoee not juut aade in ltaly, but often made in ElotEnc,"

F r

get out of ltaly. ln the longer term wB saw that lt was much better to etay," Mr Ferragamo saYs, displayiug the almoet beatific smile that coues from someone who knows tley have made the richt decision against the odds.

export economy, afrer Germany. It ls a position help,ed by Italian conpanies also piggybacking on German flnished

often contradictory. Italy still lacks basic infrastructure. Broaclband is urueliable in many parts of the corm' try. ProductiYity per uuit of Iabour has fdlen about S Per cent conpared with Geruany
since
?Ofi).

ThJreasons for Iirlian success ar

goods. Italian executivos like to say that {0 per cent of an Audi vehicle is uade up of Italiau goods. Irr tbe period from January to November 2010, erpods rose 15.2 per cent conpared with the same period

in

2009,

tries outside the EU, up

fotffi;u" ago, many economist' and lindus*ialists, outside,

in Italy and
tlat
were convi:rced

make up the backborc of the country's economy were in te.rminal dctine. Ihe ltalians could not conpete with rival manulactuhg bases in Asia. Their productivity was too low aud too costly. Itey did not have

and uedium-sized businesss ttrat

the myriad smarl

ssr(/scanMlsl m6ans companies fitquently codFlain of not gstting tbe sanre support froE govemment that their peers do irl France or the UK. Strong labour unions, seemlngly boundlees bureaucracy, orgahisod criue and endemic tax evasion have

Almest constetrt Political insta. bility..aost rrccntly-s,urrgtrtrligS ninid-ufustf glvfo sdflusc66i's

enabled it to defy tho dootrrsayers. According to the chief executlve of one European multinational, ltalian entrepreneurs exhibit "an exceptioaal raw creativity and passlon" and a
Meuxbers of Milan's business community compare tho success of ltalian

16.5 per cent, comparcd with exports withln the EU that wrc up 14,3 pr cent. There are also the intangible qualities of Italian businessec that trave

with stroES grorvth to coun-

tierce competitiveoess.

the iufrastrucfurc or heft to export

given Italy 80th place in the Wofld Bank's "Ease of doing businees" survey, down four places from 2010. But the creativity aarl businesq acumen among ltalian entrepreneurs to make "Mede in ltaly" a premiuE brand is helping them to man@uvrle througb and aut ofthe crisis - aod in sohe cases out of ltaly as well.

entrepreneur$, the small and medilm enterprises that are the "fabric" of tbe economy. to a beetlu. cumbersome and awkward, it seems destined to be Iand-bouad. ADd yet, defyrng expectation8, it ls able to tly.

'!t urs a shott.term

ItaU.lnthc lmgertctm wo E wthgt itwrs much

better to stay'
their gooils in the volumes necessary to etrsure their suruival,

necding to SFt out of

Yltt

W
of

made stlong reductions in terms of volune but not in terms of value," says UEEnTEEEmlil, chief exeeutive

'The experts i-n ltallan manufactur.

hisher level because there war no

Italy's northem industrlal beartlands. "Thoy rcpo$ttioned themselves at a

UEfIMt

a legloml leudor in

point iu cohpttng witb ^ChiDe terms of low-Driced goodsJ

As Mr

ir

flourlsh. Italy'r economy has grown on averago amund I per cent a year for the past decade. Forelgo direct iDvestment flows are far below the European average because of the same litany of difficultioc that mean ItaIan compatries mtut be flexible and adapt ln orater to surrive. Since the crisis, and without struc-

emarnlng
good

in ltaly, however the bra[d msy be, is not en optiod for many co&Banies if they want to

cashnere i! Biella, sunglasses ilo Belluno, hand'

o@ for centuries -

whrch Italian excellence had develin Prato, ceramicE in Grotta8lie

The industrial clusters

aroutrd

gioods executiveg lrave noted, the attentlon to provenance paiit by Chi nese consumers * by some estlrnates. the world's biggeet luxury ma.rket bas helped tho industry support price
rises of some 10 per cnt iD the pa8t 12 months. Other sectors of the economy * even the uo6t unexpecftd - ale seektng to

iffiEliltrl

tural roforms

and otlher luxury

needed to make the econoEy grow, bankars report an

bags

no longer Uo!'ided the supPort and the demise of "Made in ltaly" have
proved

synergies to sustarin themoelves. Excpt that, 10 years ol1, rep,orts of

2010, the country's exports are estimated to have grown 12.5 per cent, far outlaciug the 4.4 per cent rise in glo' bal gross domesfic plpduc't. ltey are forecast to rise a further 8 per eeut in

to be greatly exaggerated. Itr

beDetit. DuriDg tle men? fashion showa in Mtlan this week, Moqte dei Paschldi Siena, Italy's third-Iargest bank and tbe world's oldest continudly operatlug lender, launched a fashion and wim label called 1492 aft.er the year that it was [ounded.

Arsomento:

ltalia: congiuntura e politiCa eCOnOmica

Pas. 78

Gio 20/0112011
aeceleradou among tbe sb.all and medir:m.sized enterprises that make up 80 per cent of the ltalian economy trying to extend exports to or open up branches in Asia ald the Americas * but which are stili trading on their credentials as Italian entrepreneurs to

FINANCIAL TIMES

Estrafto da pag.

get there. Diego Dela Valle, the entre;rreneur behind the Tod's and Fay brands and a core shareholder in Saks, the US luxury departEent store, argues that more needs to be done to defend

"Made

country's

in

Ita1y" as a means for the

suall and

businesses

agailst globalisation.
"'Made

to

defend themselves

medium-sized

sre must pmtect. Most people

ltaly' is a streEgth that

\rant a

piece of Italy, that is not sohething ll,ql .we delend enough," Mrr.Deuir Valle saysJ He has suggested, for iDstance, getting private money to protect the ColosseuE because its preseNation is as

important
guides.

businessmen is based on the idea of the "Made in ltaly" brand as it to tour

who-qe bueiness

to Iialian

Italians, a recent coffee table book covered in Tod's sipature camel eol. our, coujured up that tlream ofltaliEtr living that has proved irresistible to

many consuners.

It

shows wealthy

Italians, such as Lucio Tasca D'AImerwines, reia,lir.g

ita, scion of the Sicilian aristoffatic family that nakes Tasca D'Almerita

in tbe mountains and by the se4-l As Mr Della valle told a conference h Milan: "Many people want to live like us, they want to be us, they want to drcss like us, and they are willing to spend money to do it."

Wndm on ths rvorH: Sahrqtorc

Fenzgrmo, the upmlrkGt shoe brand baled in Floruncr (top) and narned lftcr tho
tamed deslgner (rtght); lashlon l,rbel Ermeneglldo

Zegnr (aborrc) rnd coflee company

Ubrcdf6 (bGlaxr) are roma oltfta

brrnd3 that have

found qrccass 6y exploltlng tfielr

Italim hcrftage
AlamyiCnrblt

Arsomento:

ltalia: cgngiUntUra e pOlitiCa eCOnOmiCa

Pas 79