Vago (Sistema Moda): “Textile is the last sector to emerge from the crisis”

The textile-clothing sector is the Italian production sector that “will come out last” from the crisis triggered by the health emergency. One of the manufacturing sectors most affected by the pandemic will only begin to see a real recovery early next year. “We will be able to observe a recovery in our sector from the productions that will be made at the beginning of 2022 for the second half of 2022”, explains Marino Vago, president of SMI, Sistema Moda Italia, the federation of textiles and fashion. This year there is an increase in production and sales compared to 2020, but last year’s collapse “was very strong and, making a comparison on 2019, productions are still very late”, underlines Vago, interviewed by ‘Adnkronos. To ensure the stability of the sector immediately and a sustainable recovery in the coming years, SMI presented a detailed intervention plan to the government at the end of March. “The resources we ask for, between 8 and 10 billion euros, are to be considered an investment that gives a return over time”. Resources equal to those allocated over the years to Alitalia, but for a sector of 45 thousand companies, 400 thousand employees and “always with the balance of payments active”, recalls Vago. For now, he continues, specific measures for the sector have not yet been approved, “but we hope that our proposals can be accepted”. In any case, the Minister of Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, “assured us that the Mise is directed on those issues and we are planning meetings with the Ministry of Ecological Transition”. If the required investments are implemented, in 2023 “we will be able to return to pre-Covid volumes and even lay the foundations, if we are able to follow the evolution of the market and to integrate in a functional way our production chain, for further growth” , underlines the president of SMI. In the meantime, companies in the sector most affected by the crisis will have to resist. Also on the employment front. The Covid redundancy fund, especially for small businesses, “is an important tool to allow you not to lose those professional skills that exist in the company and to which an entrepreneur, if he does not have production spaces to fill, may be forced to give up”, says Vago . If an entrepreneur continues to use the Covid cash register, “he has a benefit from the point of view of safeguarding professionalism and allows him to bypass this period”. Otherwise “it is right that he has the opportunity to restructure”. In any case, the textile-clothing sector “is not yet in the expansion phase and at this time we do not see a need for new hires”. But the problem, as SMI has been underlining for some time, is “the lack of professional figures and the difficulty of replacing people who leave the productive world”. The problem of the size of Italian companies is also weighing on the competitiveness of the sector. With the turnover of the two French giants in the sector, Lvmh and Kering, which is greater than the total turnover of Italian textiles. Despite this obstacle, “some Italian groups are increasing their industrial share and are buying factories, because they realize that they are strategic in the production cycle”, continues Vago. Size remains “a competitive problem”, as demonstrated by the acquisitions of Italian brands by French groups. The inclusion in well-established platforms present all over the world “has allowed quality products to have a global showcase, with multiplied turnover and production”, underlines the president of SMI. But now, “even if all the Italian entrepreneurs and companies in the sector were put together, they would not reach the size of the French. What we have to do as a system is not to be armed against each other”, he concludes.