Industrial development consortia: revenue of 156 billion and half a million employees

An industry worth 156 billion in revenue, 34.3 in added value and employing nearly half a million people. These are some of the figures for Italian industrial consortia which have a labour productivity 31 per cent higher than the national average, with an export orientation of 15.8 per cent and investment focused on digitalisation, innovation in production processes and the energy transition.

In a nutshell, this is the picture that emerges from the report ‘Companies in Industrial Development Consortia: evolution, competitiveness, strategic investments’, produced by the Tagliacarne Research Centre and presented by Ficei, the Italian Federation of Industrialisation Consortia and Bodies, during the conference Industrial consortia in Italia: a driver of development for the country.

The starting point is an estimate of around 20,700 local consortium units spread across the country, accounting for 0.4 per cent of the total non-agricultural sector. “‘In this production system,’ the report states, ‘it is estimated that there are over 466,000 employees (2.5 per cent of the total), generating €34 billion in added value (3.2 per cent) and €156 billion in revenue (3.7 per cent).’

With over 10,800 local units in 2023, the Ficei industrial consortia have, over the years, become increasingly significant and representative, whilst also recording steady growth. Against this backdrop, Abruzzo, Puglia and Sardinia stand out as the regions with the highest number of consortium local units, in line with their level of economic development. ‘The industrial areas of Molise, due to its small size, and Basilicata, due to the decline in manufacturing activity that characterises it, have, together with the Marche, the lowest number of local units,’ the report continues. “Basilicata, Molise and Friuli-Venezia Giulia are, however, the regions with the highest proportion of industrial local units established within the consortia. Conversely, Veneto and the Marche have the highest percentages of local units in the services sector.”

Overall, industrial workers in the consortia ‘account for a higher proportion than the Italian average: 53.4 per cent compared with 31.1 per cent’. Then there is the issue of labour productivity, measured in terms of value added per worker.