Vicenza, 11/09/03 – The twenty-ninth edition of Orogemma closed today, the last event in the gold trilogy of the Vicenza fair. The figures tell us that there were more than 10, 700 Italian trade operators, down 12% on 2002, and more than 4,500 foreign trade operators, down just 4,7%. A total of fifteen thousand trade operators means that the Vicenza Fair is still fully playing its role as a fixed point in the international fair calendar and an important tool to help the industry out of the recession. The results can be considered to be satisfactory in terms of numbers when one considers that prospects were hardly rosy on the eve of the fair (exports down 35% with the USA down 49%). When it comes to numbers, one important fact is that the drop in foreign buyers was not concentrated in single areas but was ‘diluted’ without any particularly steep declines.
But what kind of a picture does Orogemma 2003 give us of the trade?
We get the picture we were expecting: it’s a moment of selection. Products that used only the strategy of value for money to be competitive have been penalized. The Italian share of this market segment is continuing to decline. Some companies are holding up but they are the companies that have invested in novelty and technological innovation, that some time ago embarked on the road of the branded product, that had the best organised distribution networks.
Orogemma has shown even more clearly that the trade must devise new strategies to make the ‘Italia’ brand even more prominent and important.
Different trade operators and representatives from the districts of Valenza, Arezzo and Torre del Greco are virtually unanimous in their view that sales volumes have improved, slightly in some cases and more strongly in others.
What about the domestic market? According to the Italian Retailers Federation that held its convention in Vicenza there is even some ground for optimism. Something has happened since July, in terms of interest, the wish to take part (there were 860 people in the delegations organised in collaboration with the fair), to take a new look at the retailer’s role and to understand the customer’s needs.