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CONSORZIO
» HISTORY |
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Foundation in 1970
The Centrovetro Consortium, founded in Empoli on 15 July 1970, arose
from the need to relaunch in the Empoli district a productive
sector active in the area ever since the 15th century, but which
since the Second World War had steadily lost the status and image
built up over so many years.
This situation made it necessary to create an Association which
would not only look after the Member Businesses, at a particularly
delicate time of social, political and economic transition, but
which would also coordinate purchases and sales, and at the same
time promote the image of the Members to the wider world.
In the first years, the Consortium mostly took care of the sales
of the Members’ products, negotiating prices and conditions
for the purchase of raw materials for its Members, taking part in
the most important promotional events, exhibitions and trade fairs
held both in Italy and abroad, in order to build up a foreign clientele
for the businesses comprising the Consortium. |
The Transformation into an Export Consortium
 Considering
the importance of exports, and realising the need for the Member businesses
to be more visible in international markets, in 1989 the Centrovetro
Consortium was transformed into an Export Consortium, and thus
became an entirely promotional organisation, not operating
for its own profit, modifying its Statute and operational emphasis.
This change was strongly endorsed by the Members which now required
more focussed and specialised services for promotion abroad, rather
than just commercial support in the Italian market.
The Consortium still represents an important reference point
both for small industrial concerns and also for handicraft businesses,
which would otherwise find it difficult to operate in new and distant
markets. |
The
Consortium today
The international vocation of the Member businesses has meant
that the Consortium has been present at various important promotional
events abroad, inviting delegations of foreigners working in the sector
to visit the glass and crystal workshops, and contacting specialised
journals which can boost this sector producing giftware, items for
the table and the kitchen, and furnishing and lighting accessories.
At the present time the Centrovetro Consortium brings together
21 enterprises in the sector (all operating in the Empoli district),
that is to say practically all the enterprises working in this sector
in this particular area. In only a few years, the Members have managed
to penetrate all the markets of the world, including the most complex
(the United States, Japan, Russia). |
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