In the heart of the Cluster

The advanced mechanics and industrial automation cluster of Emilia-Romagna has strong roots: great passion and an in-depth understanding of packaging, automation and engineering in general has given rise in Emilia-Romagna to a network of companies dedicated to advanced engineering. Often they are born from one another, carving out their own specific niche and helping to forge a well-defined territorial identity, thanks to the exchange of ideas and transfer of draftsmen and engineers from one company to another. The existence of many specialist schools in the area also facilitates the generational renewal of technicians, assuring the continuity of skills.

According to UCIMA (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association) data, Emilia-Romagna generates 62.1% of domestic sales in the sector, amounting to about 4.1 billion euros in 2016, with 52.7% of the personnel and 36.9% of the companies. Taking these four provinces of Emilia-Romagna into consideration, in 2016 there were 222 “pure” manufacturing companies of automatic packaging machines. The turnover generated by these companies came to a total of around 4.1 billion euros and they employed 15,624 people.

If we only consider the province of Bologna, there were 68 companies active in the field of automatic machines during that period, with a total turnover of approximately 2.3 billion euros and 9,500 employees.

In this context, to remain competitive the priority is the ability to create innovation. This innovation comes above all from research, but also from close cooperation with the end-users, according to a philosophy of co-makership, in order to respond to very diverse needs, including the need to offer the consumer a high degree of safety and machines that are more and more ergonomic and easy to use.