Research by Confindustria Moda shows, in the first quarter of 2020, Italian fashion and textile companies lost more than €3.5 billion in revenues and their sales could decrease by a total of about €9 billion by the end of the year. The report analyzed the performances of companies represented by SMI — Sistema Moda Italia, and those that have been significantly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in the country since February.

It showed, 42 per cent companies interviewed registered a loss between 20 and 50 per cent in revenues, while 28 per cent posted a decrease between 10 and 20 per cent. In addition, compared to the same period last year, for 49 per cent of the fashion and textile companies the number of collected orders decreased between 50 and 20 per cent.

As SMI president Marino Vago highlighted, in order to protect their workforce, 95 per cent companies included in the research used the wage support measures made available by the government and, to protect the safety of their employees, 80 per cent of them activated smart working.

Confindustria Moda’s research also focused on the fact that for the Italian fashion and textile companies, which took part to the survey the biggest issue they had to face during the emergency was the management of the relationships with clients. As Vago noticed, since most SMI associates operate in the textile sector, they were significantly affected by requests of clients, sometimes big fashion groups, to postpone payments or revise contracts.

In addition, the research highlighted how the companies in the Italian fashion and textile sector are suffering after a lack of liquidity due to the low capitalization rate of the medium and small-sized companies.