Applications open for the third stage of MIMIT's Benefit Competition
Until 4 May, applications can be submitted to participate in the Ancona event on 26 June
The Benefit Competition's tour of Italia continues. After the stages in Milan and Brindisi, the road opens to the third, on 26 June in Ancona, at the Confindustria headquarters. Until 4 May, applications can be submitted to take part in the initiative promoted by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and dedicated to the knowledge and dissemination of the Benefit model. The competition is open to companies already established as Benefit - or planning to become one - from all over Italy. All information can be found on the MIMIT website in the dedicated section.
Why participate in the Benefit Competition
The importance of participating in an initiative like the Benefit Competition is well described by the winners of the Brindisi stage. From their words emerges above all the value of 'networking', of getting to know other realities, companies operating in other fields for a positive contamination of ideas. 'It is important to network. This type of event allows you to get to know both people and other companies, other ideas,' and in this way you can 'compare yourself with what the system of benefit companies is and see, perhaps, how other companies are solving problems on a social level,' stressed Simone Gardini, CEO and co-founder of GenomeUp. The other companies on the podium were also on the same wavelength. "The most important thing we bring home is the desire to always do more. On these occasions you get to know so many companies involved in various areas of innovation and sustainability. There is always something we can 'take home' to implement our business model in order to improve more and more,' continued Pierluigi Scordari, sustainability manager of N&B, Natural is Better. Riccardo Frezzato, co-founder and Cfo of BeNewtral, added that another "extremely interesting aspect is the fact that in the second part of the day there are young people, students who are interested in potentially becoming entrepreneurs, and so talking to the new generations - who will be the future of this country - is fundamental, especially to tell them "Keep dreaming, or rather dream big, let's all try together, the planet is one and we must arrive and achieve the goal of safeguarding it all together".
The advantages of being a Benefit Society: you grow more
As emerges from the 'National Research on Benefit Societies 2026', carried out by Nativa, Intesa Sanpaolo's Research Department, InfoCamere, the University of Padua, the Brindisi-Taranto Chamber of Commerce and Assobenefit, the number of Benefit Societies is growing rapidly in Italia, confirming the fertility of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric with respect to the economic and social function of this new legal structure of companies aimed at creating shared value in addition to profit. In our country, there are 5,540 Benefit Societies at the end of 2025 (+21% year on year), with a production value of 69 billion euros, equal to 2.5% of the total production of companies registered in Italia. The 2026 report also confirms that these companies are growing more and better than comparable companies: the cumulative increase in turnover between 2022 and 2024 was 15%, which is significantly higher than the 5% recorded by the sample of non-benefit companies. The number of employees also increased in 2025: +11% to 241,000, who are on average paid more than the non-benefit companies. According to the Report, this superior economic-income performance is triggered by the use of strong strategic levers, including strong internationalisation and investment in patents and environmental sustainability.
Advanced and inclusive governance
Within this framework, governance choices confirm an extremely advanced and inclusive approach. Benefit societies show a female presence on their boards of directors of 47% (against 36% for non-benefit companies), reaching peaks of 63% in large companies. In particular, the strength of the 'generational dividend' emerges, indicating how young people on boards act as multipliers of value. 29.3% of Benefit boards host at least one young person under 40, compared to 21.8% of traditional companies, and Benefit companies led by under 40s grow much faster (+17.4% in turnover compared to +6.2% of companies led exclusively by over 65s), show a greater propensity to recruit (+15.5% vs +10.1%) and adopt more generous salary policies (+22.4% vs +21.2% salary increases). With particular reference to this last aspect, the Report underlines how, in a hostile macroeconomic context dominated by strong inflationary pressures, the Benefit Companies have translated their competitiveness into concrete results for employment growth and support for workers' salaries. Choosing to reduce their margins in favour of real wages means embracing in practice the principles of the stakeholder economy: a paradigm that places the generation of profit for shareholders alongside the creation of real value for all stakeholders.
Workers are paid more and produce more
Benefit companies continue to show higher growth not only in terms of turnover and number of employees, but also in terms of value added and labour costs. Over the three-year period 2022-2024, the median growth in value added of the Benefit Societies was 19.7 per cent, compared to 12.6 per cent for the non-Benefit Societies, and for labour costs 21.6 per cent for the Benefit Societies compared to 11.2 per cent for the others. In addition, according to the 2026 Report, Benefit societies have a higher added value per capita: this is 61,000 euros, 3,000 euros more than non-benefit societies. The same differential is also recorded for labour costs per employee. The summary of the evolution of added value and labour costs is captured by the trend in EBITDA, the difference between the two items, which between 2022 and 2024 grows by a median of 16.2% in Benefit Companies and 10.5% in non-benefit companies. In relative terms, the Ebitda margin, which relates EBITDA to turnover, showed a slight strengthening for both clusters with median values aligned in 2024 and equal to 9.4%. The slightly less significant improvement for the Benefit Companies (2 p.b. vs. 4 p.b.) can be attributed to the significant increase recognised in employee remuneration, as well as the jump in turnover during the period, which was higher for the Benefit Companies than for the non-Benefit Companies.
