Credit: Assomac
On Friday 21 June, the main players in the sector gathered for the general assembly of Assomac, the national association of manufacturers of footwear, leather goods and tanning technologies. This segment of Made in Italy is going through an extremely delicate phase, with a 12% drop in revenues in 2024 compared to the previous year. In the context of Kilometro Rosso, a national point of reference for applied research, the assembly confirmed itself as an important moment of reflection to network, identify obstacles and outline common strategies.
«Fragmentation is still too high: over 70% of Italian companies are micro or small businesses», underlined Mauro Bergozza, President of Assomac. It is this “industrial dwarfism” that is blamed for many of the current difficulties, such as growth limitations, low competitiveness and poor investment in innovation.
Yet, despite the critical issues, Italy maintains technological leadership in the high-end segment, with a 30% share of global exports in the sector. In particular, it holds 52% of global exports of tanning machines and 35% of leather goods machines. The footwear segment is more penalized, stuck at 12%, in a context increasingly marked by the dominant presence of China.
Giuliano Noci, professor of Strategy and Marketing at the Polytechnic University of Milan, spoke precisely on the topic of Chinese competition, underlining how China will continue to produce machinery and improve its production processes. The point, according to Noci, is not to compete on the same ground, but rather to offer something different. The invitation addressed to Italian companies is to evolve towards a model that is not limited to the sale of machinery, but that focuses on services, consultancy and customized solutions. The idea is to build an industry capable of integrating operationally with customers and investing in a serious and radical digital transformation, based on data collection and intelligent process automation.
In this perspective, Assomac has launched a digital assessment program aimed at SMEs, in collaboration with the Digital Innovation Hub of Confindustria and with the support of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy. The goal is to map the level of digital maturity of companies and accompany them on a path of structured innovation, from engineering processes to the supply chain, from marketing to predictive maintenance.
In addition to digitalization, another pillar that emerged from the assembly is international projection. The "Assomac Around the World" program, in collaboration with ICE Agency, has already touched strategic countries such as Pakistan, India and Senegal, and plans new stages in Vietnam and Shanghai, participating in international trade fairs in the sector to promote Italian technological excellence in the world.
However, to grow and be truly competitive, the company dimension can no longer be overlooked: this is the point on which Assomac strongly insists. It is necessary to overcome the fragmentation of the sector through aggregation processes, mergers and strategic alliances. Only in this way will companies be able to face the challenges of an increasingly unstable global context, leveraging the great trust and reputation that Made in Italy enjoys in the world. A capital of positive values that, if supported by a structure capable of truly investing in innovation, can be transformed into an advantage on international markets.
