Italy Footwear Industry: A Brighter Performance In The Crisis

Footwear industry is a traditional dominant industry in Italy. Its footwear products are of high quality and enjoy high reputation worldwide.

2008 World

After the outbreak, Italy's economy suffered a serious blow, and many industries were plunged into an unprecedented crisis.

But the footwear industry in Italy showed a brighter performance in the crisis and increased in 2011.

First, the current situation of Italian footwear industry

(1) a complete industrial chain consisting mainly of small and medium sized enterprises

A complete industrial chain, and every industry segment has a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises.

One of the important reasons for success in the world.

The industry chain of Italian footwear industry consists of three parts: leather making, footwear product parts and shoes making.

There are 3037 enterprises engaged in leather making in Italy, 4778 of which operate footwear products, and 5660 of them are shoes manufacturers. Over 90% of these enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises whose employees are less than 50.

The diversity, strong competition and flexibility of small and medium-sized enterprises are the root causes of Italy's fine leather shoes.

(two) take the export route of high-end products.

People are very proud of their high-end footwear products.

At present, Italy is the second largest exporter of footwear products in the world. The annual export value of footwear products is about 7 billion euros, second only to China (about 26 billion 900 million euros), leading significantly to Vietnam (3 billion 370 million euros) and Belgium (3 billion euros).

The export price of footwear products in Italy is far ahead of the rest of the world. According to statistics from Italy Footwear Association, in 2010, the average export price of each pair of shoes was about 33.37 euros, the highest in the world, second in France and 22.63 euros in each pair of shoes. As the exporter of the world's largest footwear product, the export price of each pair of shoes was only 2.7 euros.

Despite the impact of the global economic crisis in recent years, the unit price of Italian exports of footwear has continued to rise, rising from 2006 euros per pair to 29.5 euros per pair in the years from 2011 to 2011.

(three) since the outbreak of the European debt crisis, growth has continued.

Since the outbreak of the European debt crisis, Italy's economy has declined, but the footwear industry has continued to grow.

In 2009, the annual output of the industry was 198 million pairs, the total output value was 6 billion 470 million euros; in 2010, the annual output of the industry was 203 million pairs, the total output value was 6 billion 760 million euros; in 2011, the annual output of the industry reached 207 million pairs, a 4.8% increase over the 09 years, and the total output value reached 7 billion 10 million euros, an increase of 9.5% over 09 years.

At the same time, exports increased significantly, exports in 2009 amounted to about 5 billion 815 million euros, and exports amounted to 7 billion 464 million euros in 2011, a significant increase of 28.2% over the 09 years.

At present, the profitability of Italian footwear industry has basically returned to pre crisis levels.

The main market of Italian footwear exports is relatively fixed: France, Germany and the United States are the three largest export destinations.

But emerging markets showed relatively rapid growth. In 2011, the volume of exports to East Asia, northern Europe, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Mexico all increased by two digits.

(four) in the first quarter of 2012, the performance was not satisfactory.

Affected by the slowdown of economic growth in emerging countries and the implementation of stringent austerity measures.

In the first four months of 2012, the order volume of Italian footwear industry decreased by 3.9% compared with the same period last year, and the volume of orders outside China increased by 0.5%, meaning that domestic orders fell by 7.6%.

Before April, the total output of Italian footwear products also dropped by 0.7% over the same period last year.

Two. The distribution of shoe making industrial zones in Italy

The footwear industry in Italy is relatively dispersed, unlike the machinery industry, which is mainly concentrated in the north.

At present, the most powerful areas in the field of Italian footwear are: Markey, Tuscany, Wineto, Campania, Lombardy, and so on.

Among them, Markey, Tuscany, Wineto and Campania are the four most powerful regions, and their shoemaking enterprises account for 74.5% of the total number of shoes making enterprises, and employ 72.8% shoemaking workers.

The number of shoemaking enterprises in Marche alone is over 1/4 of that in Italy and employs 26.4% of shoemaking workers.

At the same time, Markey, Tuscany and inner to the top three regions are the three largest industries with the highest added value and the strongest profitability.

In terms of the shoemaking industrial area, Fermano Maceratese of Marca District, Abel Sa (Aversa) of Campania, Vieira del Del of Riviera (Wineto Brenta) and Monte Bbe Luna (Montebelluna) of Florence, and Florence (Firenze) of Tuscany have several leading shoe making industrial zones in Italy.

Three. The successful experience of the shoe industry

(1) ensuring the competitiveness of the industry as a whole

The Italy Footwear Association believes that the success of the footwear industry is due to their great importance to ensure the competitiveness of the industry as a whole.

To ensure and continuously improve the competitiveness of the industry, first of all, we need to ensure the integrity of the whole industrial chain in every industrial area, and constantly improve the quality of production, and at the same time, we must constantly enhance the external publicity of products.

(two) pay attention to brand training and brand segmentation.

Paying attention to brand training is the consistent course of Italy shoe making industry.

The reason why the unit price of leather shoes in Italy is far ahead of the world is due to the brand effect creating more added value.

Not only that, the Italy Footwear Association also called on the whole industry to focus on brand segmentation, that is, not only to cultivate excellent brands, but also to subdivide outstanding brands, and create excellent brands in every link.

(three) establish a national level industry strategic development plan.

The footwear association of Italy has affirmed the effectiveness of the industry development plan at the national level (or even the regional level).

An effective industry development plan can point out the main problems faced by the industry, find effective solutions to travel, carry out relevant development projects, standardize the development of enterprises, provide funds to help SMEs develop and assess the development of the industry.

(four) pay attention to the combination of products and art and culture.

Italians believe that excellent footwear products must meet people's needs for art and culture, so that their culture and art can be added to the design and production of products to make products unique and more competitive.

(five) increase personnel training and recruitment.

Shoemaking is a part of the fashion industry. It is very important to pay attention to the training of design talents.

Supporting design talent training projects, and it is very important to recruit potential young people through diversified means.