The export of Made in Italy vending machines in the first 6 months of 2017 is nearly 213 million euros, up 5% over the same period of 2016. This was confirmed by Confida – the only Italian association representing the entire automated distribution chain – at EVEX, which is the European event organized by EVA (European Vending Association), held the last week in Rome. The European leadership of Italian vending machine industry is strengthening – says Piero Angelo Lazzari, president of Confida – a state-of-the-art technology development sector that is also a practical example of excellence in the Italian export technology. The figures confirm that 70% of food and drinks vending machines produced in Italy are sold abroad.
Growth in Europe
Sales of Italian vending machines do not slow down in those European countries where the largest market shares are concentrated: in Germany, which covers 12.4% of the sector’s exports, the increase was 10.5% while in the Netherlands, which account for 6.7% of exports, growth was 11.7. Two-digit increases also in some key market countries such as Russia (+38.7%), Switzerland (+33.7%), Romania (+25.1%) and United Kingdom (+11%%). Exports for vending recorded a total value of 300 million euros in 2016. The main market for the entire sector is France with 17%, followed by Spain at 12% and Germany at 11%.
New markets
Statistics provided by Promos and the Chamber of Commerce of Milan for the first half of 2017 show that – despite Europe being the most important marketplace for Italian vending machines – the extra-EU market is booming with its value growing in one year 16% reaching 22.6% of total exports. South America accounts for 4.4% of total exports, while Asian markets are worth 6.5% and the Middle East 3.4%. Among the countries that made the most significant improvements we can find China (+214%), Mexico (+171%), Brazil (+150%) and Malaysia (+150%). The expansion in the United States (+15.7%), where exports from January to the end of June exceeded 5 million euro, is also evident. Outside Europe the United States represents 2.8% of Italy’s total exports to the world. South America represents 4.4%, while Asian markets are 6.5% and in the Middle East 3.4%.
The Italian vending sector
Italy is the first European country for installed vending machines (over 800,000), followed by France (590,000), Germany (545,000), and England (421,000). Italy is also the leading European manufacturer of automatic distribution machines. European automation operators met in Rome to face our industry – stated the President of Confida Piero Angelo Lazzari – with the awareness of the difficulties but above all with a vision of the future that can deal with the new market scenarios. We can clearly see the innovative capacity and responsiveness of companies that run the service, favored by a varied and personalized offer of products and innovative digital technologies and applications. That is the plus of Made in Italy on the European market, as well as a concrete and functional example of 4.0 enterprise.