The key points
- The clothing company closed 2021 with revenues up 6% but the war represents enormous economic damage
- According to the Peruffo ad, raw materials have increased by 60-80% and energy costs have tripled and perhaps will continue to grow
- Alert on the risk of closure of the Italian fashion textile SMEs
A path of expansion towards the East interrupted, given the situation in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, that of the Venetian clothing company Peserico, which before Covid had almost 80 million in turnover, with an export of about 70%.
But it is not just about economic loss: “For us and for all the people with whom we have worked for years in Ukraine and whom we have come to know and appreciate, it is a betrayed hope – explains Riccardo Peruffo, managing director and creative director of the family business -. It is a huge economic damage for us, but also a broken dream for our partners in Ukraine, where made in Italy and Italian style, in the last five to six years, had become a milestone on which to build a different future, more European”. Peruffo is the spokesperson not only for his company – which in 2021 had closed with a growth of 6%, recovering at least in part the ground lost in the annus horribilis of Covid – but for all the small and medium-sized enterprises that, in Veneto and in many other Italian regions constitute the backbone of the Italian fashion system.
“The situation has been difficult since before the invasion of Ukraine, because the price increases had already begun in the second half of 2021 – underlines Peruffo -. But now the situation is unsustainable: raw materials have increased by 60-80% and energy costs have tripled and perhaps will continue to grow. Coming to the war, in Ukraine we cannot deliver the goods ready, nor fulfill the orders collected in recent months and for which we and many other companies have started production and in any case have already ordered and paid for all the raw materials ».
For decades, exports have been the driving force of the textile-fashion-accessory (TMA), despite one of the worst side effects of globalization, unfair competition and, for certain sectors, dumping. Italian companies, also thanks to the quality and strength of the supply chain, have resisted moving more and more towards the medium and high range, but Peruffo now wonders: “How will we be able to defend our market shares, when we will not be able to keep prices in line to those of producers not affected by the return of sanctions? ». In fact, the situation in Russia is equally dramatic: the ruble has lost 45% of its value to date and local customers, partners of the many Italian companies of the TMA, can no longer pay for the goods produced, nor confirm the orders scheduled for delivery in July. and August.
Just today Peserico would open a shop in Kiev, which would be added to those in Odessa, Mariupol, Leopoli and Karkiv. Peruffo has no solutions, how could he, if the heads of state of the whole world or the UN do not have them? «However, I would like to make it clear that everything is interconnected and that the war does not create problems only on end markets, such as Russia and Ukraine – explains the entrepreneur -. We cannot ignore that in the absence of tourism from Asia and China in the first place, in the last two years the Russians were very important customers for quality made in Italy in our cities and in many other European capitals or holiday destinations ».