{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ I am a journalist and work for Corriere della Sera. I have written books on factory outlets. According to a news article, Italians are big shoppers. FOC is an outlet centre that has created a lot of employment in Italy. It is involved in tourism and lies near highways. Going to FOC is a leisure activity for families, its consumers are mainly upper class.
Different situations co-exist in Italy. There are major factory outlets like Troyes, Mac Arthur Glenn, etc and there are palaces containing ten factory stores inside.



{{From the floor}}
_ What is the total surface area of the 30 outlets?



{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ 322 000 m²
_ In Italy, there is no observatory that produces figures; these figures were given to me by Saudatex.
There is only one exclusively Italian operator, Fashion District, all the other are mixed.



{{From the floor}}
_ When the first factory outlet opened in Italy (Serra Valle, McArthurGlen), there already were several in France. But today, the number of factory outlets in Italy has increased.



{{De la salle}}
_ The Italians have imported the experience of others and can therefore do better.



{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ Promos is an important construction operator of outlet centres. 8 years ago, he came to Troyes and discovered French architecture. He went back to Italy to build FOC.
In Italy, promoters chose an area to build an economy and decided to build outlets there. For Europeans, Italy has imported these ideas from the United States.



{{Roberto PACIFICO}}
_ I am a journalist. I will try to tell you about FOC in Italy, speaking not as an expert on FOC but as a writer for the monthly magazine Mark Up, recently acquired by the famous financial newspaper, Soventi Patroli.
In terms of administrative tools and regulations, FOC tend to consume more new land than shopping centres. In Italy, there are 40 new projects of shopping centres, and more than 1/3 are refurbishment projects so they tend to use former industrial areas to be redeveloped. It is called ‘brownfield’. The “greenfield” tends to use new land on outskirts of big cities, like FOC, and may create a problem for entrepreneurs. In Italy, there are not more than 7 big shopping centres to which many customers from different regions are drawn. FOC offers many different brands, both medium and high brands. Questions like the speed of installation of both type of centres, shopping centre and outlet, is an interesting topic to discuss.



{{Henrik C. Maris}} (Factory outlet consultant)
_ There is a lot of land in Italy. Factory outlet is a leisure shopping activity, with excess stock and excess shopping. I see the need for organised FOCs. Italy has the highest density of stand alone outlets and they need to be more organised from the current sale of stocks to the backdoor of distribution centres. The ones that claim to offer 20% discount, but in fact sell at 30-50 % discount, should be closed. Lastly, I was surprised to see that the Italian customers are part of the upper class. In my opinion, they’re more part of the educated middle class. Concerning the question above, the outlets are not in competition with the shopping centres. These have two different runs. Shopping centres are in competition with the town centres. An outlet is more like a fun park and weekend activity.



{{Roberto PACIFICO}}
_ Thank you for your intelligent remarks. As an irregular customer of FOC, there is confusion and pressure about the cheapness of FOC brands. FOC is indeed a leisure format, its important driver being tourism.



{{From the floor}}
_ It is a question of the real number of FOCs already existing. Currently they are between 12 and 14 with a critical mass of shops in the centre. There are still regions in Italy where Italian tourists will go to outlets.



{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ In Italy there are a lot of realties besides FOC. In Piemont, there is a small outlet with a 3000 square metre showroom with 10-15 brands inside. To understand the situation in Italy, you need to look at the big names but also at the development of small centres. Even if they are small centres they can be called ‘outlet centres’.



{{Roberto PACIFICO}}
_ The difference between the growth of shopping centres can be explained historically. The shopping centre was born out of the big food retailers in the 80s, early 90s. Currently, the large shopping centres in Italy are owned by financial operators. Will shopping centres survive with or without food anchors? In my opinion, shopping centres will not leave out the food aspect.



{{From the floor}}
_ A multi-brand shop is a shop with many brands and its own counter. Factory outlet is about to get rid of the excess stock for the highest possible price.



{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ The multi-brand is another subject. Factory outlet is when owners place their own stores inside. In Italy you have many of these mini factory outlets.



{{From the floor}}
_Italy is very interesting with the amount of goods inside its borders, some are organised and some not so organised. It would be a good scheme to have all these brands organised in factory outlets.



{{Marina MARTORANA}}
_ There are two factory outlets in Italy that concentrate on the big brands and big discounts, in the Tuscany and Piemont regions. In Seravalle, you can buy one litre of shampoo of Bottegaverde for 1 euro, it is not a big brand but it can be found in a big outlet.



{{From the floor}}
_ It is not a question of the price of the product. Bottegaverde is a good product and does not need to be pricy. Brand is a brand in people’s minds. Masotto will hopefully do better than Malboro classics and Franco Ferré, and bring their Scandinavian schemes into the factory centres. When will it happen and what will the future be is my question.