Esserre Pharma is among the 90 companies in Central Italy awarded the 41st Felix Industry Award

The 41st Felix Industry Conference dedicated to Central Italy was an important recognition to Esserre Pharma: the Felix Industry Award

 

The company and other 89 companies operating in Central Italy were awarded the Felix Industry Award in Rome at the prestigious Luiss Guido Carli University for having distinguished themselves in growth performance, financial reliability, international footprint, and innovation among the more than 250,000 companies in this area, which together employ 2.4 million individuals.

The conference was organized by Industria Felix Magazine, edited quarterly by Michele Montemurro as a supplement to Il Sole 24 Ore, in collaboration with Cerved, Luiss Guido Carli University, and A.C. Industria Felix, with the support of Confindustria, the patronage of Simest, the media partnership of Il Sole 24 Ore and Askanews, along with the partnerships of Banca Mediolanum, Mediolanum Private Banking, and Grant Thornton.

 

The Felix Industry Award and the study of the entrepreneurial reality in Central Italy

The 90 companies given the award were chosen based on an analysis by Cerved Marketing Intelligence, the Cerved division aimed at supporting growth of Italian companies through Market & Sales Intelligence, Digital Marketing, and Advanced Analytics services on a wide range of indicators relating to the Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche, Umbria, and Tuscany regions. The study was presented by Cerved‘s Market Intelligence Director, Manuela Bravo.

According to the analysis, the regions in Central Italy have a problem with growth: companies tend to remain small and the impact of the long economic crisis and pandemic has affected these industries more than the rest of the country.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is further slowing economic recovery, and the revenue of companies in Lazio, Tuscany, and Marche will still be at lower levels than pre-Covid in 2023. Investing in digitalization, expanding one’s presence abroad, and consciously facing the challenges of the environmental transition are needed to overcome this phase.

The report highlighted that the regions in Central Italy are characterized by very different specializations, with Lazio having a large number of companies in the tertiary sector, while Tuscany is more active in the production of retail goods, Abruzzo in utilities and energy, Marche in industry, and Umbria in the food and beverage sector.

Tuscany and Marche are characterized by high levels of digitalization that are above the national average, as well as by a high proportion of companies that operate outside Italy; on the other hand, Umbria and Abruzzo have companies with low levels of both digitalization and internationalization.

Lazio, in contrast, has a good level of digital transformation, but a relatively small number of companies that export goods and services, due to strong specialization in services.

 

The growth problem

In all these regions, however, businesses tend to remain small: for every 100,000 inhabitants, there are 593 medium-large companies in Italy. This ratio is lower in all the regions examined, with a higher index in Marche (549) and Lazio (544), lower in Umbria (501), and much lower in Abruzzo (397).

The long recession followed by the pandemic have led to a strong impact on businesses in Central Italy: in all the regions examined, the data indicate a loss in revenue that is greater than the national average (-4%), with a very significant decrease in Lazio (-12.3%). According to Cerved‘s forecasts, in 2023 revenues will remain below 2019 levels in the Marche (-0.3%), Tuscany (-1.4%), and Lazio (-2.6%); at the same time, Umbria (+ 2.8%) and Abruzzo (+ 1.6%) are recovering.