Furniture: -10%. The Istat data on Italian exports to Germany for the first two months of 2024 is merciless and unequivocally illustrates the slowdown in the main foreign market for our economy. In decided contrast to the trend compared to foreign markets which instead manage to hold up for the sector (-0.7%), with almost 1.8 billion in furniture sales worldwide between January and February.
Berlin is less toned, as mentioned, due in particular to the crisis in the real estate and construction sector, with new building permits falling by double digits for many months now, directly impacting the business of many exhibitors at the Salone del Mobile , which with varying intensity and few exceptions complain of difficulties in German demand.
«The slowdown is visible – explains Flexform CEO Matteo Galimberti – and across the border, Germany is among the markets that suffer the most. The German buyers are here at the Show, like every year, but I see them all a little more “calm”. However, even though Germany is worth 8% of our revenues, we are experiencing progress elsewhere. And in fact the objective of growing, reaching 100 million in turnover, is still confirmed at the moment.”
The strength of these companies, of furniture and furnishings but not only, is in fact the great geographical diversification, presence in multiple markets (for Flexform exports are worth 80% of revenues) which partly allows them to compensate for the difficulties of a single country.
“Germany? For us – explains Marco Zucchetti for example – it matters relatively little”. The Novara-based tap and fittings entrepreneur, with 30 million revenues, sees further growth in 2024 thanks to the contract division. «The Arab countries are doing great – explains the entrepreneur – and in fact here at the Salone del Mobile we are meeting many architects who are working on these maxi-projects».
#Berlins #slowdown #furniture #exports
2024-04-19 21:18:25
