by Barbara Cosci
Florence, 2020, Feb 1st.
With the thirteenth edition, Immagine Italia & Co. consolidates its prominent role in the international fair scene, keeping the primacy in Italy for women’s and men’s all ages underwear. At Immagine Italia & Co. 2020 there are 83 participating companies for a total of 290 among the most prestigious brands of national and international level.
Praise to Made in Italy, but not only!
The 40% of the total exhibitors come from foreign markets represented by: France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, Latvia, Poland and Korea.
Partecipation data shows a growth compared to the last edition with 8 welcome returns and 11 new entries.
The Pistoia Chamber of Commerce, the creator and organizer of the event, is satisfied with the results obtained on the participation point of view: it is the outcome of an important promotional strategy and the results obtained in previous years. Great is the commitment of the event organizers aimed at increasing visitors. The hospitality of the top international buyers has been confirmed. It has identified and reported by the same participating companies at the fair, which for the 2020 edition, come from: Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Lithuania, Morocco, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Spain, Ukraine.
After last year’s debut, the partnership with Firenze Home TexStyle was consolidated. The fair dedicated to home textiles and boating will take place, for the second consecutive year, in conjunction with Immagine Italia & Co. inside the Fortezza Da Basso in Florence.
Once again, the visitor will thus be able to access both trade fair events using the same entrance, accrediting himself in a single session at the registration desk, moving without limitation to the Spadolini Pavilion on the ground and lower floors.
THE PROGRAM
The absolute protagonist is the daily appointment with the FASHION SHOW: the collective runway shows. On the catwalks, underwear and lingerie items parade in a perfect harmony with the most current fashion trends: from the multifaciated styles of tomorrow’s underwear to the new luxury trends. The typology of the products displayed is high-end, medium-high.
Confirmed also for 2020, the presence of the Gala “Le stelle dell’intimo“, the competition organized by Linea Intima to enhance the independent detail in the underwear, beachwear and socks sector as well as to highlight the new stores with an imprinting more “transversal” to Prèt-à-Porter.
For the Immagine Italia & CO. exhibitors FREE PERSONALIZED CONSULTANCY are provided by the Pistoia Chamber of Commerce by appointment.
In detail:
– LABELING TEXTILE PRODUCTS ADVISORY AND CONSULANCY
How should the label of a textile product intended for EU countries be?
To this and other questions, exact suggestions on the labeling methods will be provided (according Regulation E.U. 1007/2011).
– CONSULTANCY FOR COMPANIES WHO WANT TO DIGITALIZE
MAKE A DIFFERENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Tik Tok: social networks are very powerful tools that can mark the difference for businesses, if their use is correct!
About digitization, Immagine Italia & Co. offers to the exhibitors and visitors a double appointment with the Workshop “INSTAGRAM I DON’T FEAR YOU! From posts to stories: discovering the hottest social of the moment! ”
ECONOMIC DATA THE SECTOR
At 2019, Sep. 30, the underwear production sector in Italy has 1,589 active companies, with a total of about 13,392 employees, which if added to the hosiery sector, make 2,357 companies with over 25,527 employees.
Concearned the underwear, the region with the most companies is Lombardy (392 companies that make up 24.7% of the total Italy) followed by Puglia (311 companies, 19.6% of the total) and Campania (169 companies, 10.6%)
Tuscany is in fourth place with 116 active companies followed by Piedmont (102) and Veneto (97) and accounts for 7.3% of the national total. Pistoia is the second most important province at regional level after Florence with 27.6% of the total Tuscan companies in the sector and ranks 12th at the national level with 2% of the total Italy.
Lombardy also dominates the hosiery production sector with 496 active companies (64.6%). Puglia follows (113 companies, 14.7%) and Tuscany with 4.3% and 33 companies.
Despite the companies’ number decrease goes on also over the past few years, the weight of the export value of these sectors is still considerable.
In the underwear sector, in the period January-September 2019, goods worth almost 2 billion 900 million euros were exported nationally. The figure, even thouh provisional, shows that the sector has maintained its position on the markets and an excellent performance over the past two years. At September 30 there was an increase of + 6.2% for exports in the first 9 months of 2019 over the same period of 2018, + 7.6% for 2019 exports over 2017.
The trade balance in this sector continues to be negative, but the gap between imports and exports decreases again.
Exports were 99.5% of imports in the first nine months of 2017, 94.5% in 2018 and are 96.9% in 2019.
From 2018 to 2019, again with reference to the first 3 quarters of the year, imports grew by a value of 3.6%.
In the first 3 quarters of 2018 the most export flows are directed mainly in the European countries (75.4%).
The distribution for the main European partners is as follows:
Germany (10.7% of the total exported with an increase of 3.7%)
France (9.8% of the total exported with an increase of + 2%)
Spain (8.0% of the total exported with an increase of + 5.6%)
United Kingdom (9.9% of the total exported with a growth of 19.1%)
Switzerland (6.7% of the total exported with a drop of -0.2%)
The positive performance of the BRICS countries to which 8.2% of the total is destined is interesting: it stands out an increase of 11.2%.
Among these, the recovery of the value of underwear exported to Russia goes on. In the period under examination it shows a growth of 2.4%, representing 4.1% of the total exported. In China, where 3.7% of the total is directed, there is an increase of 21.7% over the past year.
Exports to Asia as a whole are remarkable (17.2% of the total exported with an increase of 10.3%). Exports to the United States also grew by 6.8% in the first nine months of 2019 (4.6% of the total exported). In the Middle East the 2.9% of the total exported value is directed with a drop of -11.8%.
Trend in the hosiery sector.
In the period January-September 2019 at a national level there were exported goods for a value of almost 508 million euros, with a decrease compared to the same period of 2018 equal to -5.4%. The reference markets are almost exclusively in Europe, which receives the 92% of the flows and which sees a decrease in the exported value of -6%.
The performance of exports to the Mediterranean area was also negative (-8.6%). Is represents the 19.2% of the total exported. Exports directed to America decreased (-4.3%) while those to Asia grew (+ 7%) after the negative trend in the same period of the previous year. Imports grow by a value equal to + 8%.
However, the trade balance of the sector remains very positive with a total final balance
of over 227 million euros.
