Anfao: Italian eyewear ranks No. 1 worldwide
During 2005, Italian eyewear consolidated its leading position worldwide with eyewear exports totaling €1.7 billion and accounting for a 27.6% market share. Hong Kong and China followed, with exports amounting to €938 and €937 billion respectively.
The divide is even greater for sunglasses, which are the highlight of Italian creativity and production. Here, Italy accounted for almost half of the world market share in 2005, that is 48.6% and more than €1 billion; with a skyrocketing 21.4% increase over 2004. Its direct competitors, China and Hong Kong, lagged far behind at €363 and €265 million and shares of 17.6 and 12.9%, respectively.
Frames, a more traditional product sector that is not as sensitive to fashion trends, hold a leading position worldwide at €604 million with a 27.5% market share. In 2005, the value of production by Italian eyewear companies totaled €2 billion (also due to the extraordinary performance of a number of large groups), up by 10.3% over 2004. Exports, at more than € 1.7 billion, posted a noteworthy +13% versus the same period in the previous year, accounting for 82.40% of production. The trends differed in the various export sectors: sunglasses topped the list with exports at +20% and totaling €1 billion. Frames grew by 2.7% for a value of €604 million.
The biggest fans of Italian products are: Europe and the United States; emerging countries such as China and Russia have also demonstrated a certain degree of interest, although the volumes are still very low. Europe continues to be the main export market for Italian eyewear at slightly below 50% (48.5%) and accounting for a 6.6% increase in exports compared to the same timeframe in 2004.
America accounts for 32.8% of Italian exports. The United States, at 28.9%, is the leading importer of Italian eyewear: this market imported both sunglasses (+27%) and prescription frames (+9.8%). This is an important sign that the U.S. market appreciates premium, fashion products.
The results were also positive in Asia, accounting for 13.2% of Italian exports of frames/sunglasses, and where the performance of Italian eyewear was very encouraging (+19.5% over 2004).
In 2005, Italian eyewear led all the Italian industrial sectors on the international markets despite the rather sluggish overall trend for the I-Style (0.5%). In fact, exports of virtually all Italian fashion products worldwide shrank between 2.7 and 4.2%, or rose only slightly, apart from perfumes/cosmetics (+7.9%) and the staggering 13% rise posted by eyewear.
The forecasts for the first quarter of 2006, based on the 5.1% increase posted in January (+11.9% for sunglasses) and on the quarterly results of leading companies, appear to confirm this positive trend, strengthening the excellent results achieved in 2005.
