The fashion industry, between months of closures, restrictions, social and cultural limitations, cause pandemic, was among the most affected. From Italy abroad, companies have suffered considerable damage on sales and liquidity. Producing and marketing, two actions, so basic and essential for an economic activity, have become slow and complex: absent supplies with supply chains in production stall. But now it will be the central key to the country’s recovery.
Partly production will be made in Italy again but attention to labor shortages: companies do not have enough specialized figures, from tailors to packers. This is the analysis carried out by Euler Hermes, a company of the Allianz Group, who carried out, in collaboration with the Format Research research institute, a survey on manufacturing companies in the “fashion” sector.
According to the report, 2020 left its mark on the sector: 90% of companies have been negatively affected, with serious consequences in some cases. But now the restart is driven by the general recovery in consumption. Compared to July 2020, the value of retail sales grew across all distribution channels. The greatest increases concerned clothing and fur (+ 15.4%) and the footwear, leather and travel items sector (+ 12.0%).
After the backlash of 2020, 2021 was the year of the restart also for fashion. In the first seven months, the sector followed the general trend, growing in terms of turnover by 22.2% against the + 27.2% achieved by the manufacturing sector compared to the same period of the previous year. The export of the sector, which represents 10.4% of the national total, grew in the same period by 22.1% thanks to the exploit of leather goods (+ 25.5%), with little marked differences between EU and extra markets EU. On the other hand, imports of textile products (-33.1%), above all from the United Kingdom, the USA, Switzerland and China (-76.1%), fell sharply.
With the return of fashion shows and sales of the past – points out the survey – fashion has resumed its central role within the Italian economy.
Nationally the projects of the production centers focused on fashion luxury and the diversification of the maison in other sectors, such as catering, are expanding. Recycling and environmental impact sustainability projects are also growing – especially in fast fashion – with a view to offsetting CO2 emissions, even if circular fashion still has very large margins for improvement.
Globally the strengths of the fashion industry remain the strong demand for personal protective equipment and the favorable structural trends of some segments (sportswear, luxury, design) which are innovative and in constant transformation.
THE points of weakness they are represented by fierce competition from emerging countries such as China, by the vulnerability of global supply chains to external shocks (pandemics, trade tensions) and by very strong pressure from large customers. E-commerce, in addition to continuing its tumultuous development, increases competition on the side of prices as well as the success of the second-hand and vintage market which are rapidly growing in mature economies.
According to the study, the key to the future, in all production sectors, will be linked to the ability to make the most of the slide of recovery and of course the support that has arrived and will come from the State and the European Union. For this reason it will be strategic to be able to count on a qualified workforce able to ensure quality and efficiency to the companies themselves.
For companies in the fashion sector, all of this cannot be taken for granted. In fact, in the last five years 76% of the companies active in the sector had the need to equip themselves with a qualified workforce, while 47% had difficulty in finding the personnel they needed. These difficulties were more accentuated in smaller companies (10-49 employees), in clothing companies and in those operating in the North-East and South regions. The qualified figures for which the companies found greater difficulties in the procurement were those of tailors, machine tool operators and packers.
Due to the lack of candidates with the required skills, 70% of businesses – explains the Euler Hermes report – had to give up or had to postpone the search for specialized figures which it needed, with all that this could mean in terms of a reduction in the performance of companies on the market and consequent reduction in competitiveness.
In any case, according to the study, production will return to the national territory. Currently 13% of companies produce both in Italy and abroad. Among the companies that also produce abroad, 40% have initiated policies to diversify their production processes while 60% will continue to produce abroad as they are already doing. Within the 40% who are considering a change in production strategies, 4% have already decided to bring all production back to Italy within the next two years, 6% have decided that they will move production to countries closer to Italy , while about 30% have decided that they will in any case move their production activities from their current sites abroad, even if they have yet to define the details of their policies in this regard
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