MILAN, Italy, July 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Focus on the rebound of businesses after the pandemic in Intesa Sanpaolo’s “Economy and Finance of Industrial Districts 2022” Report, now in its 15th edition. It was presented by the Intesa Sanpaolo Chairman Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, the Chief Economist Gregorio De Felice and the Head of Industry & Banking Research Fabrizio Guelpa. The Report illustrates the speed of the districts’ recovery after the 2020 crash. It goes on to describe the actions taken to counter energy price rises and quantifies the effects of the energy crisis on business margins. Finally, the Report focuses on priorities: a combined mix of technology, innovation and human capital, which are among the key elements to return to growth in 2024, when demand will recover. The analysis of the balance sheets of more than 90,000 enterprises shows the post-pandemic recovery of 22,302 enterprises belonging to 159 industrial districts, compared to 68,377 non-district enterprises specialising in district production. A better dynamics of district enterprises emerges, which in median terms already in 2021 recorded a turnover 5.2% above 2019 levels, two percentage points higher than in non-district areas. Profitability also strengthened: the EBITDA margin in the districts rose to 7.7%, three-tenths of a point higher than in 2019.
In 2022, district enterprises register a turnover dynamic of +16.7%, better than the manufacturing sector as a whole. For 2023-24, nominal turnover growth is estimated to be even higher than in manufacturing (+3.3% vs. +0.9%), in a context of virtually unchanged producer prices. And exports are also set to reach a record high of EUR 153 billion.
“The companies in the industrial districts have shown that they are capable of bouncing back very well from the pandemic and surviving even this war, which has caused a disruption of supply flows, a sudden increase in the cost of energy and other fundamental elements for production,” highlighted the Chairman Gros-Pietro.
And then there was the ability to react to the energy crisis. “There are already many companies in the industrial districts that are active in the self-production of energy: for a quarter, the energy bill paid to the utilities has dropped between 2019 and 2022,” explained Gregorio De Felice Chief Economist Intesa Sanpaolo.
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