Assocalzaturifici “very concerned” about the months to come
Italy’s main national footwear industry body, Assocalzaturifici, has said its member companies experienced an average fall in sales of 33% in the first three quarters of 2020.
President of the organisation, Siro Badon, said: “The figures for the first nine months of the year reveal a sector that has been sorely tried by the covid emergency.”
To illustrate this, he pointed out that 101 Italian footwear producers ceased operating in the course of the first nine months of 2020 and that the industry shed 2,600 jobs. Mr Badon pointed out that, taking component manufacturers into account, these figures increase to 231 companies closing their doors and 3,453 jobs being lost.
He said that there had been “timid signals of a return to normality” in the last of the months for which figures are available, September 2020. Exports and domestic sales for the month were on a par with the same month in 2019. However, he said that there was a real danger of a second wave of covid-19 wiping this out immediately, with “severe repercussions” for the Italian footwear industry’s ability to hold out.
In export markets, Italian footwear manufacturers sold 127.1 million pairs of shoes in the first nine months of 2020, a decline of about 20% in volume.
“We are very concerned about the months to come,” Mr Badon said.
Image: Micam.
