Furniture districts in Italy

The report offers an overview of 8 furniture and furnishing districts in Italy, with data and information on the territory, corporation and development policies. Industrial districts are an important peculiarity of the Italian manufacturing system, from the point of view of both the efficiency of the productive processes, and the competitive capacity shown by these entrepreneurial nuclei on foreign markets. Born as a merger between economic and productive relations and economic and social ones in limited territorial areas, they have initiated and consolidated processes of economic development, characterised by a close relationship between the society and the productive system. The Italian furniture districts consist in local productive systems with a strong geographical reference, essentially made up of small and medium sized firms which are linked to the institutional and social sphere. The report considers the furniture districts' structure, analysing weaknesses and opportunities that characterize the district's development. For each district basic data are available (turnovers, total number of furniture firms and employees, product mix, exportation) together with information regarding the history of the district, its evolution and development policies. Considered furniture districts: Brianza Comasca e Milanese, Bassa Veronese e Bassa Padovana, Treviso e Pordenone (l'Alto Livenza e il Quartiere del Piave), the Manzano chair triangle, the furniture district of Forlì, the furniture districts of Toscana, Pesaro and Urbino, the Bari-Matera sofa triangle.