The famous “Made in Italy” branding allows many industrial sectors to differentiate themselves from the concurrence and therefore to resist the crisis better. Technology, adaptation to special client requirements and reliability are key elements that make of the packaging sector the mainstay of the Italian economy.
Reasons for the Italian machines’ success
No random was involved in the packaging sector’s success. Italy exports its packaging machines and especially its machine tools on a regular basis, which reversed the current trend compared to other industries that don’t manage to open to the international. Nevertheless, the internal demand for those types of machines is also rising. And last, but not least, the Italian industry has been showing a growing interest in research, and developed new technologies in order to step aside from the concurrency and offer innovative products.
Results of the packaging industry in 2013
Manufacturers announced goods results for the end of 2013. Even though beginning of 2013 has shown a slowing down in the production, global results for 2013 have shown a growth of 7.6% which corresponds to a record annual turnover of 6 billion Euros. As we already mentioned, the opening to the international is the main reason for the Italian packaging machines’ success and therefore, the exports increased by 8.6% in 2013. The internal demand also played a role with an increase from -3% to +3%.
The “Made in Italy” branding as a reference in the packaging sector
The Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association (UCIMA) claims that the “Made in Italy” branding would have been a determining factor that allowed the packaging sector to show such good results. The UCIMA president, Giuseppe Lesce, explained this phenomenon by the fact that Italian machines are high quality products and that many investments were made in the R&D. The specialization in packaging machines and quality of the Italian machines could even allow the Italian sector to surpass the German quality branding. Besides, it already is the case in the mechanical sector, a fact that is confirmed by the quick development of the famous packaging valley in Bologna that gathers the biggest Italian packaging companies.
To sum up, the packaging sector remains an healthy sector of the Italian industry and at least similar results are expected for 2014, as more investments are planned in order to innovate and offer even better services to the clients.
