Sburlati (Confindustria Moda): 'Made in Italy under attack, protection and industrial policy needed'

A complicated start to the year - as, moreover, expected - with a drop in exports of 5.5% to 6.2 billion in the first two months, accentuated towards non-European markets (-9.3%), and a demand for the Wage Supplementation Fund in strong growth: between January and March, 13.1 million hours were authorised, 20.4% more than in the same period of 2024. A year that had already recorded important requests for social shock absorbers from companies in the crisis sector.

The data, provided by the Confindustria Moda Studies Office, confirm a crisis situation for the 40 thousand companies in the Italian textile-clothing sector that are united in the association. Eight out of 10 of them expect to close the first half of the year with stable or declining revenues compared to last year. "There are four factors that negatively affect our sector: tariffs, although the effect is still indirect; uncertainty that slows down investment; the cost of energy that weighs heavily on textiles; and the size of our companies, which are small. We are working closely with the government, but it is essential, now more than ever, that the institutions accompany these efforts with targeted and timely industrial policies'.

Sburlati, who has been in office since 19 May for the four-year term 2025-29, emphasises the difference between 'reacting to an event, which Italian companies have shown they can do well in response to events such as Covid, and planning long-term action that can protect and strengthen the made-in-Italy supply chain, "the second most important in terms of foreign sales after mechanical engineering. Companies must be allowed to invest in the digital and sustainable transition, and to do this they need access to capital. I am thinking, for example, of a series of tax incentives to encourage pension funds or investment funds to bet on the Italian fashion supply chain, which is made up of many small companies'.

At the moment, according to Sburlati, CEO of the Pattern Group, which deals with prototyping and production for luxury brands, 'Made in Italy is under attack, a structural attack. We have to curb episodes of illegality and miscommunication: there have been video campaigns on TikTok that let people believe that products made in Italy were made in China. Let's reverse the situation'. The reference is to the recent episodes that led the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office to put brands such as Armani, Dior and Valentino into receivership between 2024 and 2024, which resulted in a Protocol for legality in the fashion supply chain signed on 26 May at the Prefecture of Milan. The next step will be the launch of a technical table that will have the task of creating the platform that will profile (voluntary) member companies. "Within the Fashion Plan that the government is working on, there must be the issue of legality, and I hope that the Lombardy Protocol can be an example on which to build a national regulation. Meanwhile, if everyone applied the national contracts it would be a step forward to guarantee decent wages'.

Among the other concrete projects that Confindustria Moda is working on, Sburlati mentions 'the unification of the national technology centres into a single entity' and the importance of creating 'a protocol for common auditing, so that companies are not stopped for days'.