Prato is looking for confirmation

by Matteo Grazzini

The Becheri family, that is, Laip, remains at the helm of Confindustria Toscana Nord’s textile machinery builders’ section, going from ITMA 2019 to ITMA 2023. Marco, the production manager, gave up his seat to Massimo, the Prato-based company’s general manager and head of the association on Via Valentini. In the past few difficult years, the textile machinery industry has embodied the Tuscan district’s hopes and sales, since the local textile manufacturing companies paid a high price to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions. The city reacted by appealing to all its best resources, including textile machinery producers: a microcosm made up of small and medium-sized companies with a range of production that covers all processing stages.

How many Pratese companies will be attending the ITMA?

30 Prato-based companies which, according to the latest 2021 data, employ 500 people and generate a turnover of € 145 million. In addition to the producers, there are 60 workshops, mostly artisan workshops, which employ 230 people. Almost all the Pratese textile machinery companies will be attending the ITMA show.

What has changed compared with the Barcelona show?

The textile machinery industry enjoyed a recovery in the past few years, in both the domestic and foreign markets. In Italy, the Industry 4.0 facilitations brought excellent results and we need more of them if we want to continue down the path of modernizing the industrial system, which translates into benefits to the GDP too, even compared with our competitors.

What does Prato’s textile machinery industry offer?

Our companies produce machinery that ranges from textile fiber recycling to finishing, carded yarn spinning and dyeing. In these fields, competition has no boundaries, both in Italy and abroad. Our main markets are definitely Southeast Asia - Bangladesh, Pakistan and India- while China is back too. Then Turkey and South-America with its ups and downs. In Europe, Italy enjoys a significant increase in textile machinery sales, along with Portugal.

What will Prato be showing at ITMA?

We come as a united front by sharing the same communication resources, but this is a trade show in which every company represents itself and at its best, in terms of both product innovation and image. Everything will be revolving around sustainability and digitization with efficient and reliable machinery.

How did you spend the two years of pandemic?

With the exception of 2020 and the forced break, we were able to contain the effects owing to a good order portfolio that we had already built up. 2021 and 2022 were definitely years of growth in terms of sales, revenue and exports.

Is the shortage of qualified staff a problem that affects you as well?

It’s a problem that affects everyone, and not only as far as

Resta in casa Becheri, e di conseguenza Laip, la guida della sezione riferimento per le speranze e il fatturato del distretto toscano, con il comparto dei produttori di macchinari per il tessile: un microcosmo fatto di piccole e medie aziende con una produzione che abbraccia guire sulla strada dell’ammodernamento del sistema industriale che cui ogni azienda rappresenta se stessa e cerca di farlo nel migliore dei modi possibile, sia sotto l’aspetto dell’innovazione del prodotto che formazione interna, pochi vogliono imparare un lavoro manuale e manifatturiero rispetto a settori italiani che ha una vera importanza frendo le misure restrittive sulle valute da parte delle banche centrali, con tassi alti e pochi soldi veri in giro per il mondo, anche nei paesi

Quale sarà la rappresentanza pratese a ITMA?

Cosa è cambiato rispetto a Barcellona?

“qualified” staff is concerned. Let’s move from the assumption that we apply the national collective agreement for metalworkers, which provides labour protection, job security and wages agreed through collective bargaining. So we’re talking good jobs. Nonetheless, we have trouble recruiting staff, for both the machine shop and office. In Prato, we signed a convention with the Marconi Institute in order to facilitate the transition of its students to the labour market, and also the Buzzi school trains students to work in the textile machinery industry, but many of them end up going to university and very few become mechanical engineers. The point is that there is a lot of demand and very little supply and things have changed because apprenticeship and in-company training are no longer available, very few young people are attracted to manual or manufacturing work and would rather find a digital or office job. And all this despite the fact that our industry allows its employees to learn languages, travel abroad and build a product with their own hands. And the mechanical industry is one of Italy’s most strategic sectors.

What expectations do you have from ITMA as a company and as Prato’s textile industry?

It’s not an easy time, because international markets are suffering from the central banks’ restrictive measures on currency, with high rates and very little money circulating across the world, even in emerging countries. And on top of that, high inflation which reduces the purchasing power of consumers in the developed countries and results in less investments. There is a stagnation of requests from the markets, but we are confident in the driving force of the trade show, which is held in one of Europe’s most beautiful exhibition spaces.

Laip che come settore meccanotessile pratese?