Italian footwear industry hopeful despite “triple dip”
While official numbers are still to be confirmed, reports from Italy say production levels fell below the “critical threshold” of 200 million pairs produced in 2014, the first time they have been under that level since 2009.
In December, Cleto Sagripanti, president of Italian footwear manufacturers association Assocalzaturifici, warned about this, calling it a “triple dip” recession.
Figures for the first 10 months last year show that while exports fell marginally (by 0.8%) in volume to 189 million pairs, the value of these exports rose 3.6% to EUR 7.2 billion.
At the press meeting at the Micam footwear show in Milan, Tommaso Cancellara, a director at Assocal, said there was “light at the end of the tunnel”. There had been an increase in footwear buyers from Italy at the show, and he said economic data was pointing to a recovery in Italy, and across much of Europe. “This is the beginning of an upturn,” he said.
