Economy - published on 26 September 2023
Source: Study and Statistics Office of the Treviso-Belluno |Dolomites Chamber of Commerce.
Mechanical manufacturing as a whole is the largest manufacturing grouping in Veneto industry and is composed of multiple and differentiated activities spread throughout the regional territory, but with territorial aggregations that in some cases are configured as true industrial districts or as centers of specialization around a few large companies.
In the province of Treviso, a leading role belongs to the appliances sector, domestic appliances and community equipment (food service equipment).
Most of these companies are concentrated in an area between Conegliano and Vittorio Veneto, identified as the “Inox Valley” for the specialization related to steel processing, which is the main component of these productions. Other important realities, although not exactly contiguous to the Conegliano area, have developed in the area of Treviso. The sector also encroaches on some municipalities in the provinces of Belluno and Pordenone, which, however, do not fall within the territorial scope of the district identified in Annex B of DGRV 2415/2014 and shown on the map.
It all began in the 1950s with the white goods productions of the Zoppas Group. Development took place through spin-offs: former company workers became entrepreneurs by transferring skills related to stainless steel processing to the outside. They began as subcontractors of Zoppas and then gradually found new market outlets.
Many companies, taking advantage of the skills they acquired, entered new sectors, such as community kitchen equipment, food preparation equipment, and many other products related to food equipment (coffee machines, deep fryers, etc.), as well as small household appliances (irons, etc.), and air conditioning equipment.
The district’s production variety has contributed to the emergence of several supply chain enterprises specializing in the production of components (mechanical or plastic), molds, resistors, etc. Many of these businesses have themselves become autonomous, differentiating their market outlets and expanding their market on an international basis.
Considering the sectoral scope as defined by DGRV 2415/2014, namely enterprises with Ateco 2007 code “27.5 Manufacture of appliances for domestic use,” at the end of 2021, according to the statistical data of the Business Register processed by Infocamere, there are 38 business offices in the district’s territorial perimeter, all active in the municipalities of the province of Treviso, and 24 production and/or distribution branches, of which 22 are in the Treviso territory. A total of more than 3,700 employees are employed in the local units of the district territory.
Alongside the local units operating in the manufacture of household appliances, there are 75 business establishments and 47 branches, located mainly in the Treviso area and operating in other food service equipment activities, and in particular classified under the Ateco codes “28.25 Manufacture of non-domestic refrigeration and ventilation equipment” and “28.93 Manufacture of machinery for the food, beverage and tobacco industry.” These local units employ nearly 3,000 people in the district area.
The Appliances and Inox district of Conegliano and Treviso was also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic: the 2020 turnover for was more than 3.7 billion euro, reporting a decrease of -11.7 percent on 2019 (median values). The district performances refer to a sample of a sample of 156 company balance sheets in the sector and processed by the Intesa San Paolo Study Center.
In 2021 Treviso confirms itself as Italy’s top province for foreign sales of household appliances, with a 22.5% share of domestic exports. The sector’s exports, already growing during 2020 despite the pandemic, exceeded 1,500 million euros last year with double-digit increases both year-on-year (+18.7%) and compared to 2019 (+27.6%; +325 million).
About two-thirds of sales were absorbed by the EU market, and primarily by Germany (269 million euros, 18% of the total) followed by France (125 million; 8.3%). Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom were the main Non-EU markets with a share of around 5% of the total (accounting for 83, 78 and 75 million euros, respectively).
by the Studies and Statistics Office of the Treviso – Belluno |Dolomites Chamber of Commerce
