The appeal of Italian luxury items – Real estate, cars and clothes. The classic luxury status symbols are often associated with Italy and its business, a fact that was underlined last week by several articles in the foreign press. The Financial Times (November 15 – – Italy’s luxury property sector proves beacon of hope in recession*) reported on how the Italian real estate market is going through a sort of “Arab Spring” of investments, with money from the rich Middle East turning its attention to hotels and luxury properties.
The New York Times wrote about the new shores where men’s fashion is landing, beginning with Italian brands such as Ferrgamo Zegna (November 20 – In Asia, Men’s Wear Roars to Life). Although China’s ravenous appetite for high end men’s wear has calmed, the demand in Southeast Asia – where the per capita expenditure for luxury goods is expanding – continues to grow and has jumped by more than 10%.
Maserati, on the other hand, is concentrating on China, where it wants to increase its post-sale services to raise profits (Wall Street Journal, November 18 – Maserati Mulls Aftersales Upgrade in China). At the same time, Ferrari, which makes the Trident, is launching a graduate program to attract international talent to Maranello, (O Globo, November 18 – Ferrari contrata jovens recém-formados para trabalhar na Itália). According to El Pais, the Prancing Horse is also making gigantic investments in technology to resume winning Formula 1 (November 17 – La “titánica” reconstrucción de Ferrari).
Internationalization and tradition in business – The foreign press not only wrote about Italian luxury producers. Fiat is planning a new model, the Ottimo, designed and built for China (Wall Street Journal, November 20 – Fiat To Build Second Model in China). Another Italian group, Parmalat, is looking at Australia, where reports from the Wall Street Journal speak of a possible bid for the Harvey Fresh agrifood giant (November 18 – Italy’s Parmalat in Talks to Acquire Australia’s Harvey Fresh).
Internationalization and exports are not only attracting the attention of Italy’s large industrial groups: they are also breathing new life into smaller, traditional companies. One such is Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli, which – according to Bloomberg – is the oldest family-run business in Italy and has been successful at surviving thanks to exports (November 18 – Oldest Italy Bell Maker Avoids Death Knell via Exports: Economy).
Domenico Siniscalco offered a view of the past, present and future of Italian business. Interviewed by the Financial Times, he talked about his recent experience as CEO of Assogestioni (November 17 – The Italian fund body, its boss, his other job, and a resignation*). Sueddetsche Zeitung gave its “Manager of the Year” award to another Italian, CEO of UniCredit Federico Ghizzoni, head of the “most European” of banks (November 21 – Mit leisen Tönen an die Spitze).
Rome, Tuscany and Sicily: cinema and tourism – Last week, Rome represented Italy’s fame as a center of culture – cinema especially. The foreign press wrote about the capital’s Cinema Festival (Bloomberg, November 16 – Italian film about truck driver wins in Rome fest), as well as how the city is described in the new film by Tony Servillo. Without hesitation, the American site The Daily Beast called the director a new Fellini (New York Times, November 15 – The Glory of Rome, the Sweetness of Life; The Daily Beast , November 18 – The New Fellini: Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘The Great Beauty’).
And – as usual – there were articles on tourist attractions, with Tuscany taking center stage. The New York Times spent 36 hours in Chianti (November 17 – 36 Hours in Chianti, Italy), while El Pais published piece about life in Maremma (November 15 – La ‘vita’ en la Maremma), where the German Die Zeit found a restaurant – Il Pellicano – to rave over (November 20 – Essen wie Gott in Italien). Die Welt also spent some time in Trapani and Agrigento, a corner of Sicily that it thought was just like in the movies. (November 21 – Siziliens Westen – manchmal ist es wie im Film).
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