In 2017, Italian textile machinery production rose eight per cent while exports grew seven per cent. Production benefitted from growing demand abroad for Italian machinery, and the recovery of Italy’s domestic market, mainly due to the boost generated by fiscal incentives for digitalization of companies.

Italian textile machinery manufacturers are entering partnerships with technology suppliers. This is seen as an essential component in providing solutions to the needs of fast fashion and increasingly more significant e-commerce retail channels. The entire textile industry is going digital. However, digitalization of production processes requires a whole new set of skills and consequently new training solutions. So the industry is strengthening links with educational institutions. Having a dialogue with schools will ensure our needs are met in professional terms, created by the new digital context and the ensuing opportunities young people can seize upon in sectors such as textile machinery production, in which Italy plays a pre-eminent role in providing excellence worldwide.

The Italian textile machinery industry represents an industrial sector comprising around 300 manufacturers (employing close to 12,000 people), with exports amounting to more than 84 per cent of total sales. Creativity, sustainable technology, reliability and quality are the characteristics that have made Italy a global leader in manufacturing textile machinery.