Italian medium-sized enterprises at the top for productivity

In response to a complex and changing economic environment, medium-sized Italian companies also show a clear desire for growth with almost 70% aiming to expand into new markets beyond their borders.

On the size front, too, the orientation is towards expansion: 3 out of 10 mid-caps estimate a structural increase, a proportion that rises to around 4 out of 10 among larger companies.

"It is post-Covid," comments Gabriele Barbaresco, Director of the Mediobanca Research Area, "that medium-sized companies see the need to achieve a size that is functional to the complexity of the context. This is an objective to be pursued with caution as it involves organisational, managerial and governance interventions, but it is certainly in line with the new competitive scenarios'.

In forecasting terms, after the slight declines of the last two years, for 2025 these companies estimate an increase in sales of 2.2%, stronger across borders, with progress of 2.8%. Price competition, the geopolitical environment and energy costs are seen as the key issues. Added to these is the mismatch between demand and supply of skills: the shortage on the labour market of adequate skills, especially technical ones, affects 8 out of 10 medium-sized companies. Energy costs and mismatch,' comments Andrea Prete, President of Unioncamere, 'are certainly a problem for medium-sized industrial enterprises, which, moreover, this year again confirm that they are a highly competitive segment of the national production system. Let's hope that the uncertainties of the international context do not create shocks that penalise these champions of Made in Italy".

On the potential tariffs front, among the main strategies deployed to cope with rising tariffs, 33.2% of medium-sized companies planned an increase in the sales prices of goods sold in the US, 25.3% aimed more at the EU market and 18.1% at seeking alternative markets. And finally energy, with EU policies representing an opportunity to improve efficiency for almost half of the sample. However, for more than a third of the companies, adherence to Brussels' green programmes entails a bureaucratic burden and an increase in costs, while 33% state that they may suffer a very or fairly high impact from the risk of transition linked to the loss of competitiveness associated with the process of adjustment of the economy increasingly based on environmental sustainability criteria.