Packaging machine sales: 5.5 billion euros

Presented on 27th June by Ucima the national survey on the packaging machine builders sector. In the light of the review of the main sector indicators, some exclusive and unexpected data emerge: total turnover 5.5 billion euros, exports 4.6 billion euros, export quota 83%, sales to Italy 941mila euros.

Made by the Study Centre of Ucima (Italian packaging and wrapping machine builders association), the organic and comprehensive study on the performance of the sector presents some novel features; the survey is not in fact only based on ISTAT codes but for the first time combines the data provided by sector companies. The new survey allows a much more detailed analysis of the sector, presenting - over and beyond the breakdown of exports and origin of imports - the segmentation of companies in terms of size of turnover, propensity to export, geographical distribution of employment and turnover, sectors of use and families of machines, as well as offering an innovatory reading of exports.
As stated by Ucima President Giuseppe Lesce, in presenting the survey as the exact photograph of a complex sector, highly diversified in terms of production and presence on international markets: «The resulting data provides a very useful tool for those who work in our sector and will become ever more so in the coming year, thanks to the historical sequence of figures that will be created in time. Italian Companies will then be fully able to compare their performance against the sector average, making analysis of trends related to export, customer sectors, types of machines sold».

Turnover and localization. In seven chapters, the survey hence describes a sector made up of 635 companies, which generate a total turnover of 5,499 billion euros and employ 26,348 people. The turnover is made 82.9% on international markets (4,557 billion euros), 17.1% on the Italian domestic market (941 million euros).
The analysis of the sector by turnover size class shows a clear preponderance of small businesses. Those with a turnover of up to 5 million euros comprise 70.9% of the total, but only account for 8.8% of  total sector turnover.
Only 5.4% of the companies have a turnover exceeding 25 million euros, while making up the most significant share (63.5%) of total turnover.
Most of the companies are located in Emilia Romagna, followed by Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont. Emilia Romagna is also confirmed in first place in terms of share of sector turnover and number of employed.

The domestic and export market. If we analyse the propensity of companies to export, significant differences emerge.
The smaller companies (up to 2.5 million euros) make almost half of their turnover (48.9%) on the Italian market. The percentage of sales on the domestic market decreases gradually as the size of the company increases, for larger companies (over 50 million euros) only accounting for as little as 7.9% of their turnover.
The share of exports of each company size class also varies a lot per single geographic area. If for all the European Union remains the main area of export, the quota of the same out of the total decreases progressively, from 44.8% in the first company class (up to 2.5 million euros) to 29.9% in the sixth class (over 50 million euros). The opposite is the case for the geographic areas more distant from Italy (Asia and South America in particular) where the largest and most structured companies make a much larger share of their exports.

The users. If one considers the breakdown of the total turnover on the basis of the sector the client companies belong to, it can be seen that beverage accounts for the largest share of turnover (35%), followed by food companies (28.8%) and pharmaceutical concerns (17,1%). It is interesting to note how instead in Italy the food industry predominates (37.6%), followed also in this case by the beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The cosmetics, chemical and other sectors (including tobacco and tissue) account for lower market quotas.
Packaging machines (that come under the category of “forming, filling and sealing machines for flexible and rigid packaging”) are the most sold machines, accounting for 41.3% of the total share, followed by "filling and dosing, sealing and inspection machines" (24.3%), category to which the capping machines also belong. The remaining turnover is equally distributed among other types of machines, where secondary packaging and end-of-line machines are prominent.