The “Made in Italy” cure for the crisis |

Located in the North-East of Italy, at just one hour away from Venice, Vicenza has been since the 1800s one of the main and most important textile and knitwear districts in the whole country. There are roughly 1,300 factories, both small and big, scattered around the Vicenza area that employ around 20,000 people.

While the largest companies such as the Gruppo Marzotto are able to follow in their plants the whole production line – from raw yarns to the manufacture of a specific garment – there are smaller yet equally important specialised companies that for decades have collaborated with international fashion houses and designers producing luxury knitwear and highly advanced textiles.

Yet the current financial crisis had an impact also on the Vicenza industries: while Italian designers presented their Autumn/Winter collections on the Milan catwalks and the factories around the Prato area – another crucial textile district in Italy – organised a demo to raise awareness about the unemployment rates rapidly raising in their sector, the companies located around the Veneto region were strategically planning their own action.

The weeks leading up to Easter will be important for the Veneto-based companies as they are going to present to the Italian government an agreement document signed by the trade unions, the local artisans and the company owners that will feature a few requests and suggestions to get out of the crisis, among them also an urgent call for a “100% Made in Italy” label. Many garments made abroad or simply finished in Italy are indeed labelled as “Made in Italy”, but these supposedly “Italian” labels do not guarantee any safety and quality to the consumers. Current European laws do not contemplate the so-called “marks of origin”, essential for the traceability of imported goods.

“Marks of origin do exist in other countries such as Japan, China and the United States and we believe that a proper ‘made in’ label would bring the EU up to the level of its main trading partners,” says Michele Bocchese, chairman of the Sezione Moda Industria of the Vicenza branch of Confindustria (the Italian association of entrepreneurs) and chairman of the women’s knitwear section at Milan’s Sistema Moda Italia (SMI – The representative Federation of the Italian Textile, Clothing and Fashion Industries). “Legislation is fundamental as our consumers need transparency and such a label would help us guaranteeing it. Many factories in Italy produce textiles, knitwear and yarns for foreign brands and this sector is one of the strengths we have in our country and must therefore try to support it.”

According to Bocchese this special “Made in Italy” label would also prove beneficial for the job market. “Small Italian companies that manufacture high-quality products end up competing with companies based abroad that damage them with their products,” Bocchese explains, highlighting how their call for a quality label is not a fight against delocalisation. “Delocalising parts of the production has become fundamental in some fields and our colleagues in other countries have done a brilliant job in many cases,” he adds. “Yet our request is based on transparency. There are quite a few High Street chains that are highly criticised for their production facilities, yet they do offer their customers genuine labels indicating where their garments are made and where they come from and we should be able to follow their example.”

Bocchese claims the company involved in this “Made in Italy” campaign want to reach out to other countries with their call, as their proposal is not dictated by protectionism, but it’s about “safeguarding employees and consumers”.

The textile and knitwear companies based in the Veneto region have other requests for the Italian government, among them also refinancing the ammortizzatori sociali, literally “social shock absorbers” – measures designed to help cushion the effects of job losses and restructuring – and asking the banks to change their tacks on credit crisis. “In the past the SMI asked very little to the government and obtained nothing, but at the time we really didn’t need much support, while now we are living in a very difficult moment and the Italian government should really try and take some support measures quickly,” Bocchese states. “The social shock absorbers are invaluable as they will allow factories to continue their productions, since the amount of orders have dramatically gone down. If companies do not want to close quickly they have to resort to the shock absorbers system. We can only hope that, once the crisis ends, we won’t have lost all our production facilities since, if this happens, rebuilding our financial structures will be very difficult.”

For what regards the credit crisis, just a few weeks ago the Italian government announced a government-sponsored bond purchase scheme to boost banks’ capital with the so-called “Tremonti” bonds, named after Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti. “We hope that the bonds will help, yet, we are going to ask the government for forms of support targeted to our sector,” Bocchese announces.

Though admitting this is the most serious crisis he has seen so far in his life, Bocchese states he’s optimistic, as sales do not seem to have gone down as much as orders. “This maybe proves there is not only a financial crisis, but also a crisis of trust and confidence in the market and in the future and we must try to get out of it as soon as possible,” he says, concluding, “For our companies it is not important to go back to the pre-crisis status, but it’s vital to find a way towards a more balanced situation than the one we are living in now.”