Courses and conferences - published on 24 July 2024
Source: Sportsystem Foundation press office
The data of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomites show a production value of 3.6 billion euro (value referred to 2022). Treviso is the third province in Italy for footwear exports (Euro 1,174 million) and the first province in Italy for sporting goods exports (Euro 377 million), decreasing compared to the previous year (-4.8% and -7.9%), but with signs of recovery in the collection of new orders from abroad in the first quarter (+ 2.0% compared to the fourth quarter 2023). Negative employment balance (-170), which, however, does not jeopardise the cumulative balance calculated from 2019 onwards (+320 employees). Digital technologies increasingly crucial for enabling companies to make new decisions.
The forecasts of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Research Department are favourable: in the five-year period 2024-2028, an average annual growth of 2.7% in exports of Italian manufactured goods is expected. Looking ahead, investments in technology and sustainability will be crucial. The companies in the cluster have the resources to overcome these challenges: the economic-financial indicators are strengthened in 2022 compared to 2019, both in terms of margins (median EBITDA margin rises from 7.7% to 8%) and capitalisation (equity on liabilities rises from 31.9% to 34.5%). The boots, skis and sporting goods sector achieved the highest level of added value per employee (median value EUR 70.5 thousand in 2022), the bicycle sector achieved the highest median value of EBITDA margin (10.6% in 2022).
Skills development and parallel adoption of new technologies (AI first and foremost) among the priorities recognised by companies, including craft enterprises, to lead the Sportsystem Cluster towards resilient and lasting growth.
Training and innovation are the opportunities to be seized, thanks also to the regional funding for research and development available to companies in the Cluster.
From September, the Sportsystem Foundation is planning an intensive programme of workshops and training activities to promote skills development on the topics of new technologies, AI and sustainability.
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF TREVISO – BELLUNO | DOLOMITES REPORT: ENTERPRISES IN THE CLUSTER AND ECONOMIC SITUATION
The report updates the cluster’s snapshot of business demographics as at 31 December 2023, based on data from Infocamere source, accompanied by employment data from Veneto Lavoro source, and on footwear and sporting goods exports from Istat source. The activities considered are the so-called ‘core’ (footwear, sports goods, tanning and leather goods) and the ‘related’ (textiles, clothing, specialised design activities), as per DGRV 2415/2014.
The territorial perimeter of the Cluster considers the following municipalities: Alano di Piave, Altivole, Arcade, Asolo, Caerano di San Marco, Castelcucco, Cornuda, Crocetta del Montello, Fonte, Giavera del Montello, Maser, Monfumo, Montebelluna, Possagno, Trevignano, Volpago del Montello (all of them in the province of Treviso).
In this territory and for the activities considered, there are 584 business establishments (half of them artisan) plus 166 branches, for a total of 750 establishments employing about 8,000 people. 65% of these employees are concentrated in ‘core’ activities.
Compared to 2022, the entrepreneurial fabric has experienced a drop of 39 business locations. However, it is warned that this drop is largely explained by office closures, by a cleansing carried out in the business registry that deleted sole proprietorships that had been inactive for at least three years. The same caveat applies to the overall decline in companies in the other economic sectors.
Considering the balance sheets filed by the joint-stock companies operating in the Sportsystem, a production value (proxy for turnover) of 3.6 billion euro (value referring to 2022) is shown.
The Treviso footwear export, with reference to the year 2023, which well approximates the cluster export, amounted to 1,174 million Euro, with a decrease of -4.8% on the previous year. Treviso is the third province in Italy, after Milan and Florence, for footwear exports.
The export of sports goods amounted to 377 million euros, with a decrease of -7.9% on the previous year. For this merchandise, Treviso is the first province in Italy, followed by the province of Forlì-Cesena.
The significant yearly decreases in exports reflect a slowdown in international demand: partly undergoing normalisation after the sharp post-pandemic fluctuations, partly conditioned by a greater caution of consumers in their spending behaviour, due to inflation and prolonged uncertainty of scenarios.
The effects on production of this slowdown in demand clearly emerge from the economic survey of the Veneto Chamber System on regional manufacturing: the survey, although based on a large sample of over 2,400 companies with more than 10 employees, does not monitor the punctual trend of the Sportsystem, but includes it in the broader ‘Fashion System’ sector (322 companies interviewed). For this sector, the most recent data referring to the first quarter of 2024 shows a contraction in production of -7.1% on an annual basis, compared to -2.4% for manufacturing as a whole. There is, however, some faint sign of recovery in the collection of new orders from abroad: these are up +2.0% in Q1 2024 compared to Q4 2023.
The issue of staying hooked to an increasingly uncertain and volatile demand raises the issue of digital tools that can enable companies to make much more flexible, adaptive and predictive decisions at the same time. There is much work to be done in this regard. In the survey that the Veneto Chambers of Commerce System carries out annually in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice on the adoption of digital technologies in Veneto’s manufacturing sector, a clear delay emerges in the fashion system: in which still 47.4% of companies above 10 employees have not adopted any digital technology, compared to an average of 32.5% for manufacturing as a whole.
The economic slowdown also had initial repercussions in the labour market. According to data from Veneto Lavoro, recruitment in the cluster, for the activities considered, amounted to just under 1,600 in the year under review: at the levels of 2019 but in sharp decline compared to the post-pandemic years (2021-2022) when they had also exceeded two thousand. The 2023 employment balance has thus entered negative territory (-170), which, however, does not compromise the cumulative balance calculated from 2019: which certifies an expansion of the employment base by +320 employees for the cluster’s ‘core’ and ‘related’ activities.
THE MACROECONOMIC SCENARIO AND FORECASTS OF THE INTESA SANPAOLO RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
After the slowdown observed at the turn of 2023 and 2024, from the second half of this year Intesa Sanpaolo’s expectations are for a recovery of the Italian economy that will rely on the contribution of consumption and investments. Driving factors will be the return of inflation, the reduction in interest rates and the realisation of NRP investments.
In recent years, the Italian economy has performed better than the average growth of the euro area: if in the decade between 2010 and 2019, Italy’s growth was 1.1% (against the euro area’s growth of +12.6% in the same period), after the pandemic between 2021 and 2024 the estimated cumulative growth is +6% higher than that of the euro area (+4.7%) and of its main European competitors.
An important boost came from the excellent results achieved on international markets, where Italian SMEs, which produce more than half of our exports, stood out, and which were able to seize the post-pandemic demand recovery by focusing on quality.
Geopolitical risks remain in the scenario, but the forecasts of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Research Department remain favourable: in the five-year period 2024-2028 we expect an average annual growth of 2.7% in exports of Italian manufactured goods. The fashion system, after the slowdown of the current two-year period, will also return to growth. In the long term, the effects of the socio-demographic evolution of the Italian population will become more evident on leisure habits and purchases, for which we estimate a clear increase in the weight of people over 65 (they will be 33.3% of the total in 2042 against 24.3% in 2024) and single-person households.
The high levels of inflation in 2023 have weighed on the consumptions of European households with effects of recomposition of expenditure for goods and services, thus penalising semi-durable goods in which the goods produced by the Montebelluna cluster such as clothing and sports footwear are also included.
In the first quarter of 2024, exports from the cluster (which in the definition monitored by Intesa Sanpaolo includes footwear, boots, sporting goods and bicycles) stopped at 389 million euro, down 17.6% on the same period in 2023, although higher at current prices than those measured in the first quarter of 2019. Sports footwear, which accounted for 66% of exports in 2023, showed the sharpest decline compared to Q1 2023, at -21.2%, while overall, it was the markets of Germany and Austria that suffered the greatest contraction (-29% Germany, -48% Austria).
The employment dynamic of the Cluster, according to Intesa Sanpaolo’s definition, confirms a more marked slowdown in 2023 compared to the manufacturing of the province of Treviso, after the rebound of activity in the post-pandemic period had increased the number of hirings of young people under 30 and of women on the total. Veneto Lavoro’s data on cumulative changes between 2019-2023 (balances between hirings and terminations) show a strengthening of professions in logistics, technical sector and plant maintenance, as if to confirm a strengthening of investments in automation and distribution of goods produced in the cluster.
In the future, investments in technology and sustainability will be crucial. The companies in the cluster have the resources to meet these challenges. According to what emerges from the Intesa Sanpaolo study on a sample of 134 companies of the Montebelluna sports footwear and sportswear cluster, the companies present themselves to the new challenges of the markets with strengthened economic-financial indicators in 2022 compared to 2019, both from the point of view of marginality (the median value of the EBITDA margin goes from 7.7% in 2019 to 8% in 2022) and capitalisation (in 2022 the net equity on liabilities rises to 34.5% compared to 31.9% in 2019).
The post-pandemic rebound led to a very dynamic growth in the turnover of the companies in the cluster: the median value of growth between 2022 and 2019 was +26.9%. Even better results were observed in companies with foreign subsidiaries, or with quality certifications, patents and trademarks: these same companies were also able to maximise productivity per employee during the period under review.
The sector of boots, skis and sporting goods reached the highest level of added value per employee (70.5 thousand Euro in 2022 the median value), the bicycle sector achieved the highest median value of EBITDA Margin (10.6% in 2022).
THE CRAFTSMEN’S POINT OF VIEW
The analysis by the Confartigianato Imprese Studies Office allows us to grasp the weight of small and micro enterprises in the Sportsystem supply chains at a national level. Of the 25,252 enterprises or local units active in the 14 sectors of products and services for sporting activities, 25,118 are micro and small, i.e. with less than 50 employees (MPI), representing a share of 99.5%.
2,306 enterprises (9.1%) are active in manufacturing (of which 1,382 (5.5%) in sportswear), 22,946 (90.9%) in services (gyms, courses, etc.).
The sector employs 70,715 people, of whom 56,002 (79.2%) work in micro and small enterprises. 23.8% of the employees work in production.
The handicraft sector accounts for 45.5% of the enterprises in the manufacturing sector – sportswear, bicycles and sporting goods – more than double the 21.2% of the total economy.
In the case of employees, the share of handicrafts in the production of sports goods is 25.4%, which is higher than both the 20.6% of extended manufacturing and the 14.5% of the total economy.
Among the main challenges are the difficulty in finding specialised employees, and the complexity of keeping up with technological leaps (AI above all). Craft enterprises also need advanced skills: the issue of human capital training is therefore crucial.
UNINT’S INTERVENTION: REGIONAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMPANIES IN THE CLUSTER
UNINT is the Legal Representative of the Sportsystem Cluster, which has a close collaboration with the Sportsystem Foundation for project animation in the area.
UNINT collects the requests of its member companies and submits intervention projects to the Region, concerning research and innovation, internationalisation, infrastructures, sustainable development and environmental protection, the defence and development of new employment, the development of innovative entrepreneurship, participation in projects promoted by the European Union, and the competitive strengthening of companies.
A new Call for Industrial Research and Experimental Development Projects is currently being published with a total budget of EUR 42,000,000. For information and to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact UNINT (0422-294248).
IA OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPORTSYSTEM COMPANIES
The advent of generative AI in the last year and a half has contributed to making the debate on artificial intelligence extremely lively.
While generative AI represents the most recent and most famous development, Artificial Intelligence technologies already have a long history behind them and there have already been examples for quite some time where AI has been concretely incorporated into business processes and applications.
WHAT do companies expect from AI? Optimise processes, improve efficiency, and in short, improve their competitiveness in the market. Where is the difference from the past? On the fact that AI is going to support those activities and processes that until now were the exclusive domain of the human intellect: analysing and documenting complex data in a few seconds, making predictions on the basis of huge volumes of data, generating new content.
Which functions are most likely to benefit from the use of artificial intelligence? Marketing and Sales, Customer Care, Operations, Production and Product Development (from the technical talk by Var Group).
Starting in September, Sportsystem Foundation is planning an intensive programme of events and training activities to accompany companies in the adoption of new technologies.
COMMENTS
Gianni Frasson, President Sportsystem Foundation
We are in a delicate transition phase that requires our companies to face tough challenges: geopolitical scenarios, socio-demographic changes, technological changes, the climate crisis. As an entrepreneur and as President of the Foundation, which from a privileged vantage point can summarise what is happening in the region, I can say with conviction that our companies have the means to face these changes and challenges. However, commitment and awareness are needed. Our Foundation’s task is to promote the development of human capital, particularly young people, through increasingly ambitious training programmes, and to support our companies, particularly SMEs, in adopting all the best technologies and product and process innovations. Our Cluster has very high potential that we ourselves often fail to exploit. We must work more and more together on this issue as well, in order to lead our companies as quickly as possible towards a new, resilient and lasting phase of growth.
Francesca Nieddu, Regional Director Veneto East and Friuli Venezia Giulia Intesa Sanpaolo
Businesses in the Sportsystem cluster continue to invest in innovation, sustainable transition, and internationalisation; we as a bank can do a lot to support the entire supply chain, thanks to the “Your Future is Our Business” programme, which makes EUR 120 billion available until 2026 to accompany our companies towards ecological transition and thus continue to strengthen their competitiveness in the markets.
Mario Pozza, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno | Dolomites
I cannot avoid remembering past president Andrea Parisotto.
We have always firmly believed in the importance of data monitoring as a pillar to analyse the evolution of the sportsystem cluster, to identify a key and understand the dynamics at work, sharing visions, ideas and new strategies, especially in this period of dual digital and ecological transition.This is a practical necessity to guide our choices and policies.In an ever-changing world, it is crucial that public and private institutions work together as a network.
Sportsystem ETS Foundation profile
Fondazione Sportsystem ETS is a Third Sector Body that aims to enhance the historical memory and support the economic and social growth of the Sportsystem Cluster of Asolo and Montebelluna (TV), formally recognised as an Industrial Cluster by the Veneto Region with DGR 2415 of 16 December 2014.
The Foundation’s main activities include:
Specialised technical training activities for Sportsystem professionals
Information and dissemination activities on topics related to corporate culture, innovation, sustainability, through seminars and conferences
Preservation of historical memory: the Foundation manages the Sportsystem Museum, one of the few cluster museums in Italy
Research activities: in collaboration with the Study and Statistics Office of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso and Belluno|Dolomites and the Intesa Sanpaolo Study and Research Department, the Foundation publishes the Sportsystem Economic Observatory every year
Participation, with the companies of the Cluster, in European funded projects concerning sustainability and circular economy with a dissemination and replicability role.
Translated by Cecilia Flaccavento
Intern at the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomites