Vittorio Tabacchi: "Italian Companies Must Be Competitive Overseas"

ANFAO (Italian Association of Eyewear Products Manufactures) President Vittorio Tabacchi reflects on economic trends in the industry, tax reforms and maintaining funds for research, development and support for internationalization.

"The decision to organize an eyewear catwalk in Paris reflects Anfao's intention to lend more weight and credibility to Italian eyewear worldwide. This is being done through new promotional tools, especially for small- and medium-sized companies that need to tell the world about their production capacities and skills.

Italian companies must continue to be successful overseas, they have always stood out for being very successful at penetrating international markets, but this leadership must be supported and promoted by the government as well. The government should make an effort in this direction by maintaining the same investments for internationalization and innovation (of the €4.5 billion expected, the government has allocated only €100 million for the next 3-year period, with only €20 million for 2003). These cuts could seriously jeopardize the survival of small- and medium-sized companies.

Suffice it to say that Italian eyewear lives on overseas markets where it exports approximately 80% of its entire production!
The government must continue to support small- and medium-sized companies in Italy in their export drive. This can be done by strengthening their natural propensity to acquire new market shares, but most importantly to penetrate emerging markets where, on average, their European competitors, mainly in France and Germany, are closer to achieving this objective.

Foreign trade figures speak for themselves: in the first semester (January-June 2002), exports of Italian eyewear took a downturn.
Exports totalled €796 million, a 0.9% decrease over the first semester of 2001.
Imports instead topped €173 million, up by 8.5%.
Exports are sluggish because of an 11.3% fall in frames; this downturn, however, is partially offset by the good performance of sunglasses, which rose by 6.5% over the previous semester.

Exports to America, one of the leading export markets, decreased by 18.7%, settling at €316 million, as a result of the sharp downturn in frames (-33.2%), and the fall in sunglasses (-5.9%). The trend in the European market continues to be favorable for both products with exports totaling €341 million (+15.6%), and where both frames ( +13.5%) and sunglasses (+17%) have gained ground.
In this industry, small- and medium-sized companies are still suffering, mainly because of the lack of significant financial resources and extensive distribution networks that allow them to gain a foothold in new markets."