ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Anna Garbagna in Italy reports on positive data from the country’s cleaning sector manufacturers.

The market is healthy and growing in Italy and for exports, dynamic and successful. This is the view of the professional cleaning sector emerging from the annual survey conducted by AfidampFAB (Association of Italian Manufacturers of Cleaning Machines, Products and Equipment), which represents companies manufacturing products for professional cleaning.

In 2018 the health of the sector is confirmed by a total turnover of €1,780,529,716. The trend is upward mainly due to the strong growth in sales of chemical products, the sector with the strongest growth at seven per cent.

Also growing are machines (+six per cent), paper (+five per cent) and fibres/cloths (+five
per cent).

The equipment sector remains fairly stable (+0.4 per cent), while the category ‘other products shows a decrease (-10 per cent). This includes soap dispensers, air fresheners, warm air hand dryers, batteries and battery chargers, brushes and pad holders and all the products which are  ‘unclassified’.

The sector of accessories and machine spare parts is also decreasing (-11 per cent), a return to 2016 levels after reaching double digit growth in last year’s survey.

The survey data confirmed however the positive trend of the Italian market which recorded in 2018 a growth of three per cent compared to the previous year and a total turnover of €848,685,612. The same growth, three per cent, applies for exports with total sales of €931,844,105.

It is a scenario of business operators showing they can interpret the market perfectly, anticipating needs and generating work at national level as well as internationally.

To confirm this, it was proved in 2018 that business from foreign markets amounted to  52 per cent of total turnover.

The sector recording the highest export figures was machines, which amounted to 41 per cent of total sales (one point higher than 2017) with a growth of seven per cent compared to the previous year. This confirms the success and versatility of Italian technology. Next there is the paper sector, with 32 per cent, and other products with 11 per cent (from soap dispensers to air fresheners, from warm air hand dryers to batteries and battery chargers, brushes and floor pads), accessories and machine spare parts with six per cent and equipment with five per cent. Chemical products, traditionally destined for the home market, also progressed in 2018, with four per cent of total exports.

The importance of the machine sector is therefore growing at international level, which is why the turnover of this sector is 66 per cent on foreign markets while the home market is also healthy.
Leading the score board for total sales is the paper sector, which represents 35 per cent, followed by the machine sector with 23 per cent.

In third position we find chemical products with 22 per cent, other products with 10 per cent, accessories and machine spare parts with four per cent and lastly equipment, fibres and cloths with three per cent.