It was held last 23rd April the Meeting of the Members of Confindustria Ceced Italia, the association that groups the producers of domestic and professional appliances in Italy. For the 2015-2018 triennium, Franco Secchi Vice President (Whirlpool Emea) was confirmed President and four vice-presidents were elected: Manuela Soffientini (Managing Director Electrolux Italia), proxy to industrial policies and institutional relationships, Antonella Ferrara (Managing Director Ols) entrusted with the relations with SME, Gian Luca Littarru (general manager refrigeration Whirlpool Emea), for energy and environment, Riccardo Remedi (managing director Faber), for the market supervision.
The sector of domestic and professional appliances goes on investing in export and innovation in a complex and negative context. In 2014 production volumes in Italy dropped by a further 2%, worse datum than the overall one achieved by the manufacturing industry (-0.1%). If the production volumes exert a significant impact on employment levels, they do not tell the truth about the change that the sector is living: the shift from entry level, mass productions to a more and more qualified offer in high-end products, where the added value of the Italian Lifestyle can be exploited and monetized.
Last year, Ceced Italia operated on several fronts attaining remarkable results in terms of demand support through the bonus on building renovations (65%) and the furniture bonus (50%) extended to household appliances, the transposition of the Weee 2 Directive and the successive Programme agreement with the partners of the Weee system, the 30% tax credit for professional appliances for the catering industry included in hotel renovations.
Under the Presidency of Franco Secchi, in the next three years Ceced Italia will operate to consolidate its positioning as central element in the neighbouring production chains of the manufacturers that operate in the wide ambit of smartness, towards which innovation is oriented. The attention to the entire chain, which includes distributors and consumers, is still the guideline in the accomplishment and definition of the associative policies, in coordination with Confindustria and its vertical and territorial associations.