Furniture and lighting, the two stars of the Milan Exhibition Salone del Mobile, recorded a turnover of almost EUR 32Bn in 2022. A result that enabled Italy to overtake its main competitor, Germany. After years of significant growth, the sector was driven by both domestic and international markets, thanks to the interest that consumers continue to hold for the domestic context.
Exports of Italian furniture in 2022 increased by 13.4% and exports of lighting by 8.5%, with the extraordinary growth of sales in the United States, which reached EUR 1.9Bn at the end of the year, EUR 382M more than in 2021. The last few years have also observed a significant growth in margins, thanks to the high design content of our furnishings and the growing attention to the innovation and sustainability of materials and products.
We believe that the excellent margin levels may also have held up over the course of 2022, while for the two-year period 2023-24 we expect more modest growth in the turnover of the furniture and lighting aggregate. The slowdown appears physiological, however, after the boom experienced in recent years and will mainly impact domestic consumption
SOURCE Intesa Sanpaolo calculations based on Eurostat figures and UN Comtrade Database.