Ipack-Ima Observatory

Exports doing well, employment stable and expectations positive. In 2014 the processing and packaging companies, that constitute the backbone of the international fair,  show good results and optimism for the future.

Concrete - and boding well for the Italian economy - the signs from the concerns in the  processing and packaging supply chain. The machinery, materials and services producers distributed over the nine Ipack-Ima business communities show a better performance than the Italian industry average and anticipate the recovery. This is documented by the latest survey carried out by the Ipack-Ima Observatory on the results achieved in the first half of 2014 and expectations for the second half of the year.
 
The frame of reference. The latest  Observatory report is based on data from a sample of 132 technology producing companies. These are mostly SMEs with a total of approx. 7,000 employees and with a turnover of around 2.2 billion euros.
In this grouping, those that declare an increase in turnover in the first half of the year prevail in six of the nine business communities. If we also include exports, a growth in turnover is seen to be registered in seven business community. Positive too the balance between the increase and the drop in employment in all of the business communities; regarding this parameter though in general stability prevails, a sign that the corporate restructuring has for the most been completed.
Similar results, albeit with different dynamics within the individual business communities, are expressed by the technology users: a sample of 262 concerns from small, medium and large in size, operating in the food and non-food areas, employ around 25,000 people and show a turnover of around 13.5 billion euros.

The companies on the panel - the drafters of the Observatory comment - are partially anticipating the recovery, especially thanks to the continuous improvement of internationalization strategies; exports enable the compensation for the continuing stagnation of domestic demand in all nine Ipack-Ima business communities. The Italian domestic market however continues to suffer from a widespread lack of confidence in the future, a variable that weighs on most of the investment choices made by Italian SMEs.
 
Unanimous optimism. Economists also underline significant satisfaction for the second half of 2014 expressed in all areas, including those in the first half of the year that registered negative balances in turnover.
If we look at the Ipack-Ima technology providers, in fact, expectations on both the turnover and exports in the second half of 2014 are positive. The balance between optimists and pessimists is sizable, even if the majority of companies at any rate predict stable results.

Among users the balance between optimists and pessimists is positive in  terms of sales and aboveall exports. Thus one has further confirmation of the role played by foreign demand in the recovery of the Italian economy: it will be this capacity to preside over the export markets that will reward the most dynamic segments, especially while the stagnation on the Italian domestic demand continues.

The Ipack-Ima Observatory, drafted by Giampaolo of Vitali Gruppo Economisti d’Impresa, monitors the nine business communities identified by the international fair as representative of its offer. They comprise both technology suppliers as well as users, operating in the fields of industrial Beverage, Industrial&Home Chemicals, Confectionery, Dairy, Grain Based Food, Hygiene&Beauty, Meat, Fruit&Vegetable and Pharma.