“Today more than ever, companies need to be able to speak with one voice and interpret the needs of the industrial world, starting from their members’ needs”. From the ACIMGA annual meeting president Aldo Peretti (who is also part of the General Council of Confindustria as the elected member of the largest companies in the Triveneto area) sends a message to the new government, called on to set the guidelines of future development, and presents the advantages of a new association model – best exemplified by the Italian manufacturers of machinery for the graphic, paper and converting industry – armed with actual facts and results.

The most recent and resounding of these is the success obtained by Print4All, the exhibition held last May, whose upshot exceeded all expectations: a large international public, over 30 thousand visitors with a ratio of 2 visitors per square metre – twice as many as the “golden rule” in B2B shows.

The success of the exhibition, which, in partnership with Fiera Milano and ARGI is already looking ahead at the next edition in 2021 – the year after the German show Drupa, with which strategic agreements of mutual promotion are already in place – was presented along with the association’s program at the annual meeting held at the prestigious offices of Assografici, where ACIMGA is set to move its headquarters in early September: “We are moving back to the historical part of Milan. Our natural place is here, with Assografici and Assocarta, in the Federation we are part of,” explained president Peretti.

The Association has grown by one-third in little over one year. Today it numbers 65 members and is set to reach 100; an internationalization project through logistic platforms is about to be implemented; market intelligence services have been strengthened with three-year projections - a unique case in Italy’s association landscape.

Yet another project of great strategic relevance is the partnership with the Paper and Graphic Federation, with which, as pointed out by Peretti, ACIMGA is working on ground-breaking double membership agreements involving the Assografici specialization groups. This will take industry integration even further to “be closer to the market, without forgetting our place as part of the association of machinery manufacturers Federmacchine, where we hold the vice-presidency,” adds Peretti.

Yet more news has been announced during the meeting, which also provided the chance to take stock of the state of the industry: in 2017 total revenues went up by 8.7%, the number of employees by 1.4%, the domestic market shot up by 28.3% aided by the government’s Industry 4.0 plan, exports maintained the already excellent levels of past years.

The analysis of the markets includes actions intended to offer members additional tools to plan and operate. “We are enhancing marketing intelligence services to unprecedented levels for any association - says Andrea Briganti, general manager of Acimga. In particular, our reports will include three-year projections, both in terms of demand and offer, details for each country for the top 20 export markets and a comparison of competitors”. On the internationalization front, along with Industry 4.0, future projects include the development of initiatives inside the Federation, whose coordination has been entrusted to ACIMGA; the organization of exhibition collectives with “turnkey” packages, which the Association plans to leverage as tools for industry promotion, implementing the offer of machinery with Assografici’s application solutions and Assocarta’s paper production.

"We are developing a new approach to internationalization: we will no longer export individual products or machinery, by the entire ‘Made by Italy’ industry,” explains Briganti. These projects will run in parallel with the organization of the Far East exhibitions as part of the Printech portfolio.

Lastly, the ACIMGA meeting elected new members of the Board of Directors (in yearly alternation with the election of the president, as established by the Pesenti reform): Paolo De Grandis, Marco Calcagni, Luigi Cerutti, Emilio Della Torre, Andrea Dallavalle, Giorgio Petratto will join vice-presidents Daniele Vaglietti, Daniele Barbui, Matteo Cardinotti and Giulia Rossini.