Coronavirus and textile: Monica Zoli’s opinion

Interview with Monica Zoli – Partner in Dino Zoli Group

DINO ZOLI GROUP – Italian business excellence, the Gruppo Dino Zoli is made of twelve companies that operate in very different sectors. Among these the leader is DINO ZOLI TEXTILE, which has been founded in Forlì in 1972 and whose core business is production and distribution of home textile.

What will be in your opinion the impact of the Coronavirus emergency on the Italian textile industry and what do you ask – as a businesswoman – to Italian and European politics?

At present it is impossible to quantify exactly the impact of this emergency on the textile sector, but it is quite clear that it will be very strong and that a complete recovery will take a lot of time. Every company will face financial criticism with cash problems, and it is obvious that politicians will have to take actions, firstly on tax deadlines, evidently not just postponing them to 4 days – as they did during this week!

What I am asking to politics is to take into consideration that companies are fundamental cells in our Country, not just resources to squeeze (assuming that it is still possible to do that!), but they are supporting pillars of Italy, to protect at any cost if we want to prevent the collapse of the whole building. We are in the middle of this emergency, now the government’s economic decrees are totally inadequate, and our fear is that once again, the costs of rebuilding will be left exclusively to private companies. It shouldn’t be like that. It is necessary to revolutionize our point of view, starting from the most important issues: taxation and bureaucracy. The only chance for Italian economy to survive passes through a radical tax and bureaucratic lightening and my hope is that we will get out of this crisis with an historic teaching: companies, to live and flourish, need lightness, that lightness (in terms of taxes and rules) that in Italy is missing for decades and that in this moment becomes more and more important. However, it is clear that in order to take this new path, it is essential to have a unite and strong European Union, because without a real Europe (without the “Unites States of Europe”) Italy – on its own – cannot do anything, if it has neither political nor financial resources to impress a real turning point.

Coronavirus emergency forced many companies to adopt in very short delays of time smart working solutions for its employees. Could this become an opportunity for the next future?

In Gruppo Zoli’s companies, we already undertook this path for a long time, using in some cases – and within certain limits – the smart working. We are facing the big opportunity to expand further this working method, that in any case should always be alternated with the usual work in the offices and the face-to-face confrontation, without which the relationships cannot develop in the right way. Furthermore, it is clear that at present my priority is not the smart working issue, but the quick and optimal recovery of production and logistics, namely of all those activities that will never be performed from home.