Tunisia, at the Italian Business Oscars 2022 a textile company wins the prize among small and medium-sized enterprises

ROME – On Africa e Affari, the magazine of the continent of the future, directed by Massimo Zaurrini, news is learned every day concerning a form of international cooperation that involves small and medium-sized enterprises and that courageously invest in low-income countries, certainly to expand their market spaces, but also to try to change in better the living conditions of “developing” populations, as they say. In this regard it stood out to the Italian Business Oscars 2022 there Cmi – Compagnie manufacture italienne – winning the prize as the best among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular for the realization of investments. A recognition that could be renamed prize for couragethat of having been able to absorb, since its inception, such an intense and unexpected shock as that of the pandemic and its consequences on the economic-industrial fabric.

The investment for the relaunch. The history of the early life of the Cmitells it in the first person to Africa e Affari, the magazine of the continent of the future, directed by Massimo Zaurrini – Brian Bacci, from Tabarka, after the award ceremony at the event organized by the Tunisian-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ctici). “We decided to take over a company with an important past in the textile industry, a bit in decline, making a purchase investment and a relaunch investment, trying to renew the machinery and increase the staff”, says the Tuscan entrepreneur. 34 years old, also in the name of partner Gianluca Cattarin, 52, with whom the project started in Tunisia in October 2019. The company has the status of a fully exporting company, a non-resident Srl.

The black period of the pandemic. Just a few months into existence, the project intersected with the negative conjunctures of the pandemic. “After a very short time we found ourselves in a country we knew little, without reference points, if not the Chamber of Commerce, in confinement suffered from the epidemic, with a company that had already reached 120 employees but forced to stay at home , without social safety nets. We did not understand the law well, when we could or could not work… ”. A very difficult situation for a young company, but which did not give up, on the contrary it continued to pay wages and contributions 100 percent, even in moments of total paralysis of the activity. Added to the Tunisian context is the fact that from Italy, where the shops have been closed, some customers have asked for time to be able to regularize payments.

“Being able to stay alive, not throwing in the towel” “This is what allowed us to do a second part of 2020 and the first part of 2021 of readjustment, and a late 2021 and early 2022 of great growth in light of the boom in the textile market, especially in Tunisia”, he added. Brian Bacci, A vigorous recovery of the market following the difficulties of China and the difficult situation in Eastern Europe, which hosts an important manufacturing production center – Romania, Ukraine, Moldova. “At that point, the main Italian players looked a lot to Tunisia ”, with favorable consequences for the Cmi.

The company has grown from 100 initial employees to 150. The only 2 Italians are the two equal partners, Brian Bacci and Gianluca Cattarin, who also carry out administrative and production management tasks respectively. Production reached 300 outerwear per day (women’s jackets and coats) for Italian brands, with a high level of quality. The decision to settle in Tunisia for Cmi was born from a need, “that of developing the project by having a complete cycle company, where all production took place internally. In Italy, due to legislation, textile companies have split up: those who only cut, those who only make part of the packaging, those who only iron, those who focus on models, and so on ”, explains Bacci. Large companies, the entrepreneur tells us, have disintegrated into micro enterprises. “We were working in this context in Italy and we were not satisfied because our global quality project required all stages of production under one roof. Looking around us, Tunisia seemed to us, and proved to be, the location where this project was able to take place ”.