Hosiery sector and Made in Italy: the case of Alfa A/S

Abstract

This Master dissertation deals with the analysis of the production of hosiery’s goods in Italy. The study is conducted thanks to the analysis of a real company which decided to move their production from China to Italy and because of that, the thesis goes through the motivation that can lead a company to a similar location decision. The dissertation is structured in five chapters. The first chapter is about to the theoretical analysis of location decisions: how these can influence a company’s business and the analysis of agglomeration economies, with particular interest in the reality of the Italian industrial districts. The second chapter presents an overview on the hosiery sector, explaining which are the actors involved, the production chain and the peculiar case of the industrial district of Castel Goffredo, which is related to the hosiery sector. The third chapter is devoted to the presentation of the study case, with an explanation of the company’s structure and its business. The fourth chapter deals with the costs’ analysis of the sector in order to understand the reasons why a company should decide to move the production from foreign Countries, as China, to Italy. Finally, chapter five proposes personal comments and analysis of the study case described in the previous chapters.