MILAN: Bioplastics group Mossi & Ghisolfi has hired 50 people a year for the last five years — not bad when Italy’s unemployment has risen steadily to a 13-year high above 11 percent. Now a world leader in its field, the Piedmont-based firm is so specialised that, to meet booming demand, it is even wooing home talented emigrants ready to take jobs at much lower pay than they could earn in Germany or the United States.
“Our business is all about technology and research. Italy is trying to compete with Vietnam on costs. That won’t work. But Italy is the Vietnam of research. Our researchers are cheap, and that’s the way forward,” says group CEO Guido Ghisolfi.
The $3bn-sales multinational, which boasts among its customers Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestle and Cadbury Schweppes, is an example of one of Italy’s hidden strengths — companies that thrive by focusing on technology, innovation and exports. Italy’s next government must nurture such firms in a shrinking economy where domestic consumption is depressed by tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at reducing the budget deficit.
Caught in its longest recession for two decades, Italy’s industrial production is around 25 percent below 2008 levels. According to chamber of commerce association Unioncamere, around 1,000 Italian firms a day closed in 2012. Some fear that a weak government after this weekend’s elections will shy away from the difficult reforms needed to make Italy competitive.
But if the headline data makes dismal reading it doesn’t tell the whole story. Clusters of medium-sized firms in engineering, packaging, fashion, food and ceramics are a reminder that Italy is still Europe’s second-largest manufacturer. Bologna-based IMA, world leader in machines that package pharmaceuticals and make tea-bags for companies like Twinings, has seen its sales grow in recent years as it uses its technological know-how to branch out into new sectors. “Moving forward we intend to use our innovative DNA to pay more attention to non-pharmaceutical business such as food,” CEO and Chairman Alberto Vacchi said.
Some companies are scouting the world for innovation. Biomedical group Sorin, a world leader in cardiovascular disease that makes cutting-edge technology for open-heart surgery, is combing world markets for start-ups that will complement its product portfolio. “We are snapping up ideas and technologies worldwide by buying into start-ups,” Sorin chairman Rosario Bifulco said.
Fiamm, Italy’s biggest battery maker with factories across the world, is reopening its historical site in north Italy and hiring more workers after developing a new sodium nickel battery which it said opened up a new client base.
Reuters
