Recap: Italian Market Insight Event

Author - Jasmin Brown

Date published:

The event began with Michael Dickinson, NECC welcoming the everyone and introducing the speakers. He then summarised the services and training programmes provided by NECC.

We had the pleasure of listening to insights on Italy and its business and cultural environment from Steven Sprague, President, BCC Italy. Steven is a solicitor, who has lived and worked in many countries. He is also a qualified mediator. The main topics of discussion were around –

  • The Chamber history.
  • Its role in promotion of trade between UK and Italy.
  • Chamber offerings – engagement in providing opportunities to members for networking, events, access to British diplomats in Italy and the British government, local and Italian administration.
  • Connecting members with specialist members who offer international trade documentation and VAT services.
  • Italy’s trade, key industries, Trade between Italy and UK – Total trade between UK and Italy in 2024 was £51.3 billion. Italy is UK’s ninth largest trading partner and tenth largest export market for UK. UK exports mechanical power generation equipment, crude oil and industrial machinery to Italy. Service exports are transportation, financial services.UK imports medicines and pharmaceuticals, clothing, general industrial machinery, beverage and tobacco, automotive. Service imports are – travel, business services, transportation, insurance and pension, financial services.
  • Northeast exports roughly £1 billion goods and services and accounts for 9.2% of UK’s exports to Italy. Northeast imports half a billion GBP worth of goods and services from Italy which is 2.5% of UK’s imports from Italy.
  • The Italian government’s initiative and fiscal benefits offered to encourage people to move to Italy and become residents.
  • Relationship between UK and Italy – signing of the MoU and Dialogue. MoU focuses on energy, technological innovation and sustainability. Dialogue is specifically designed to facilitate export promotion between Italy and UK.
  • Business opportunities – petrochemical and oil industry, automotives and machinery. Good opportunities for investment in medical, pharma and chemicals. Iron and steel, optical and photographic equipment. In services – transport, travel, telecom and financial services.
  • Three significant areas have opportunities in direct investment – real estate, decarbonising and life sciences. Italy is a very good stepping stone to gain access to the rest of the EU. There is a perceived opportunity in renewables. There are opportunities in wind, hydrogen and solar. Grid modernisation presents another opportunity.
  • The Italian Chamber can help if anyone wants to invest in a business in Italy by providing guidance and contacts. Chamber has good relation with the Italian Trade Agency which provides consultancy to businesses in terms of finding real estate, market research, market entry assistance, grants and incentives. The consultancy is free of cost.
  • Italy as a country – diversity, business environment, infrastructure, bureaucracy.  Local Chambers of commerce in every city which are the registers for companies in that city.

He ended his presentation with a few tips on doing business in Italy.

  • Invest in relationships.
  • Italians value work life balance.
  • One has to know when the time is right to talk about business while in the process of developing relationships.
  • Italians are boisterous, passionate and use gestures.
  • They prefer to be addressed formally. If possible, use their qualifications.
  • Not very precise with timing.
  • They love being negative about their country but that does not mean they will like foreigners doing that.
  • They present themselves well and care about how others present themselves.

Massimo Dona was our next speaker. He is the Chairman and CEO of SAIM SpA. He spoke about SAIM –

  • Family business of the Dona family.
  • Developed the company starting from industrial market.
  • Developed other businesses over time.
  • Now concentrating on the marine market.
  • Supplying, developing and servicing equipment for the yacht builders.
  • SAIM Industrial.
  • He spoke about SAIM’s business history, turnover, employees, total area, active customers, part members and SAIM’s products. He said that after selling a technology it is very important to incorporate servicing in Italy. Some of SAIM’s products have customers in UK. SAIM decided to invest in UK to be present in the UK marine market for supply of luxury yachts. UK is the second largest market in the world, after Italy, to produce super mega yachts. 
  • He held a comparison between the cultural and business etiquettes in UK and Italy. While the business interactions are formal and structured in UK, and the negotiations are relatively swift, in Italy, personal relationships, trust and acquaintance play and important part.
  • In Northern Italy people are more focussed on their work life than the rest of the country.
  • Priorities at work keep changing. Flexibility and problem-solving skills are essential.
  • In northern region office hours are long.
  • Mergers and acquisitions approach is different than that in UK. In UK agreements are secured in detail well before closing. While in Italy such detailing is absent often and can result in problems later on.
  • M&A proceedings are less complicated in Italy as civil courts already provide the rules and structure which are strictly followed.
  • Consumer behaviour – deeply influenced by tradition, brand reputation. ‘Made in Italy’ carries a significant value. Foreign products need to convince the Italians about its quality, investment and added value.
  • Marketing strategy is about story telling about the brand that helps in building trust and loyalty.

We ended the event with Q&A

Do Italian companies utilise British expertise for design engineering?

Italians have deep respect for expertise and qualities coming from outside. It depends on how you convince them. Story telling is important. The chamber can guide and match businesses with same interests. However, not having the relevant Italian qualification might pose a problem.

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