7.02 RESTART – REsilient, SusTainable and circulAr leatheR and Textile supply chains

Concentration in downstream markets, the advent of fast fashion and the relocation of production processes to countries with lower labor costs have resulted in a heavy downsizing of the Italian textile and leather sectors over the past 20 years. Increasingly stringent environmental regulation, the need to ensure traceability of production processes in fragmented supply chains, rising energy and logistics costs, and an increasingly uncertain demand pose particularly complex challenges for these industries. Despite the heavy restructuring these sectors’ supply chains have undergone, they still suffer from major structural weaknesses: (i) historically sedimented skills dispersed and no longer reproduced; production capacity below the critical threshold in some key phases;

• massive reliance on outsourcing of production processes by first-tier suppliers to second-tier suppliers;
• excessive fragmentation of the production process across a very large number of small and micro enterprises operating in an inefficient and uncoordinated manner, no longer able to guarantee adequate service levels for the fashion industry; subordination to brands and certifying authorities,
• the complexity and costs related to certification processes and the regulatory adjustments imposed by governments and brands erode margins in an unsustainable way,
• limited search of new products and new markets for innovative applications of the old and new know-how. Moreover, production processes and supply chains in these sectors have a great environmental impact. Companies in these sectors, however, are one of the cornerstones of “Made in Italy” and still employ a significant number of people. Companies in these sectors, however, are one of the cornerstones of “Made in Italy” and still employ a significant number of people. The survival and growth of these companies, through a sustainable and circular transition, is, therefore, a pre-requisite to preserve an important part of Italian manufacturing.

The RESTART project aims at helping those companies in their circular and sustainable transition.