Tax credit for investments in capital goods in the Ho.Re.Ca sector. This is the request that has been made by EFCEM Italia, the national arm of the European Federation of Catering Equipment Manfuacturers, which is part of APPLiA Italia, the industrial organisation that represents businesses operating in the sector of professional equipment and appliances. These are difficult times, and this is precisely why investing in the future is of such fundamental importance.

So this is the climate in which the next edition of HostMilano will take place, from 22 to 26 October 2021, an event that is looking more and more as if it will be a valuable opportunity to relaunch the sector, a point underlined by Simona Greco, director of Fiera Milano events, when she spoke at EFCEM Italia’s general assembly, held this year online. “There is a desire to go on investing, especially at a time like this, because trade fairs also help to encourage the country’s recovery. We need to proceed with an organic system that incorporates digital methods, which now play a decisive role in the reformulation of the dynamics whereby supply meets demand, in a strategic context like that of a trade fair.

The chairman of EFCEM Andrea Rossi, for his part, stressed how “Foodservice and hospitality have been among the worst-hit sectors, but I believe that it is possible simultaneously to protect human health and to continue with production and catering activities. Concrete steps need to be taken to improve the fortunes of a sector – that of excellence Made in Italy – around the world.”

The assembly was also an opportunity to look at the facts and figures. While the analysis of the state of health of the sector in financial terms, commissioned by StudiaBo, confirms a generally positive situation, in 2019 there was a slight fall-off in operating margins (-0.6%), and the decline in the value of production in relation to capital continued, with the year only just managing to end with a positive result.

As for exports, an analysis by CSC ANIE for EFCEM Italia revealed that there was already a slowdown in 2019, with trade further penalised by protectionist measures and the climate of uncertainty this brought with it. And while the foreign market for professional catering and hospitality equipment recorded a reduction in exports in the first six months of 2020 (-17%), an internal analysis among members measured what impact the spread of Covid-19 had on 2020: it noted a drop in orders of around 35% in the first four months of the year, on the same period in 2019 with the fall by year end expected to stand at around -40%.