The national footwear sector closed the first half of the year with a decline in both turnover (-9,1%) and exports (down -8,5% in value and -6,8% in quantity in the first 5 months). Also in sharp decline the Istat index of industrial production (-19,5%). This is the snapshot of the sector taken from the latest report produced by the Centro Studi Confindustria Accessori Moda for Assocalzaturifici, which also notes a decrease in purchases by Italian families (-2,1% both in volume and expenditure).
For Giovanna Ceolini, President of Assocalzaturifici: "The phase of weak demand, held back by a lower propensity to purchase by consumers, by the slowdown of various economies (not only the Chinese one) and by the uncertainty linked to geopolitical turbulence in various areas of the planet, has severely penalized orders, not even sparing luxury. The negative economic situation is having strong repercussions on the production rates of companies, which have amplified the recourse to redundancy payments. They are growing furthermore the negative balances in the number of employees and active businesses compared to last December".
The most significant effects have been seen in trade with foreign countries. “To suffer, first of all, – continues Ceolini – exports have always been the driving force of the sector, given that 85% of the pairs produced in Italy are sold outside the national borders. Following the contraction in foreign sales (-8,5%), the sector's trade balance, although positive for 2,34 billion euros, shows a decline of -4,7%, despite the reduction in imports (-11,6%)".
Examining the export data in detail, the slight declines in sales in EU partners (-1,6% in value and -2,4% in quantity, supported by the stability of flows towards France, +2,6% in value and +1,5% in volume, confirmed as the first destination) are accompanied by declines in the order of -15% in non-EU outlets. Among these, the only positive signs are recorded for the Middle East (+10,7% in value) and the Far East (+2,9%, with China +12,6% and Hong Kong +22,6%), but they should be read above all in light of the changes in the distribution strategies of luxury brands, particularly rooted in these areas, which now ship directly to the final destination markets goods that previously passed through hubs in Switzerland (which not coincidentally marks a -54,7% in value). The USA drops -3,5% in value (but with a much more marked -14,7% in volume), while Russia, after the collapse of 2022 at the beginning of the conflict and the rebound of 2023, shows a drop of -21,7% in value on January-May 2023.
Even on the domestic consumption front, the data are not positive: in the first 6 months, purchases by Italian families fell by -2,1%, both in volume and expenditure. Analyzing the type of footwear, the most marked declines were in men's shoes (-5,7% in quantity and -4,6% in expenditure), while those for women and children/teens showed reductions in the order of -3%, both in pairs and in value. "Sports shoes and sneakers" showed the least severe contractions (-1% in volume and -0,6% in value). Finally, slippers fell by 1,7% in quantity (despite the stability of those for women), with a -0,7% in expenditure. While family purchases show a less than rewarding evolution, good news instead comes once again from the shopping of foreigners visiting Italy, thanks to the increase in arrivals and presences of foreign tourists in the Belpaese, after the sustained growth of 2023.
On the employment front, the prolongation of the unfavorable economic phase is putting a strain on the resilience of companies, forced to make massive use of wage integration tools. In fact, in the leather supply chain, the number of authorized hours increased by +138,5% in the first 6 months, and is at levels 4 and a half times higher than the same period in 2019 pre-Covid. The selection process among companies has also become more stringent, with inevitable repercussions on employment trends. At the end of June, compared to December, there were 107 fewer shoe factories, between industry and craftsmanship (-3%), with a negative balance of -2.359 employees (-3,2%): a sudden reversal of the trend, therefore, compared to the timid recovery recorded by the sector's workforce in the 2023 final balance on 2022 (+1,8%).
