2015 was an excellent one in thepost-economic crisis era for Italy’s eyewear sector, industryexperts said here on Friday.
At the opening conference of MIDO,the Milan eyewear show which runs from Saturday to Monday, it wasannounced that in 2015, Italian eyewear production totaled 3.6billion euros (3.9 billion U.S. dollars), up by 12.5 percent over2014.
In 2015, there were 870 companiesin the country, 0.2 percent more compared to 2014. Exports offrames, sunglasses and lenses, which account for almost 90 percentof production by the sector, rose by 12.3 percent over 2014 to 3.4billion euros.
The main export market forsunglasses and frames in 2015 remained Europe, with 49 percentshare of exports, followed by United States with 30.5 percent andAsia which absorbed 18.2 percent, posting a growth of 14 percent,with China at 42 percent. In terms of suppliers, imports from Asiacontinued to take the lion’s share at 73 percent, figuresshowed.
The Made in Italy was a drivingfactor for exports, MIDO president Cirillo Marcolin said.Sophisticated consumers are willing to spend more, so that highercosts for companies are more than offset by the benefits of productimage and quality, he noted.
In fact the comeback of Italianproduction, especially for the very high-end of the market, dubbed”reshoring” or “back to Italy,” has been gathering pace even amongthe large eyewear companies, he pointed out.
“Clients want something that canreflect their personality. Eyeglasses in the course of years haveevolved, they continue to have the main function to correct visionand protect from sunlight, but are also an important accessory, akey side of us that we immediately show to others when we meetthem,” Marcolin told Xinhua.
Marcolin added eyewear companies inEurope have been wrong when looking at China as a place where theycould produce their goods more easily because of its low cost oflabor. “They did not realize at the beginning that China couldpotentially be the largest market in the world,” he said.
“But now European companies arepaying increasing attention to this market, they have also producedcollections that are particularly suitable for the Asian customersand represent a sort of Asian style. Many Italian companies areworking on this trend and I believe there are a lot ofopportunities only waiting to be seized,” he added.
This year at its 46th edition, MIDOis among the eyewear industry’s most important internationalevents. Endit
