'Happy crisis'
21/11/2008
The president of the Italian Shoe Trade Federation (Federcalzature), Massimo Donda, is changing his seasonal message for this year, wishing people in the industry a ‘Happy crisis’ instead of the usual Happy Christmas.
In an extensive statement he said that although manufacturers of footwear in Italy are used to being in crisis, but that with the financial markets in such turmoil, the current crisis is of a different order.
However, he said that the sun comes back out after every storm and that the footwear producers he represents had to make sure they continued to innovate so that they were still standing when the crisis abates. He said that companies that “have not known how to, or have not been able to reinvent themselves” are unlikely still to be in the footwear market when the situation improves, leaving all the more space for the ones that survive.
“We have to resign ourselves to a long period of holding our breath,” he added. “Fortunately, the experience of recent years has left us highly trained for that. But in the days ahead we are going to have to do more with less, and give more with less. It sounds like a real paradox, but it’s the only possible way out.”
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