Incoming mission Cluster AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES

Incoming mission Cluster AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES

Cluster2Cluster: France visits Lombardia

ngelo Vallerani, President of the lombardian Cluster: “Our mission is to ensure that companies can build a solid network of contacts”

The business networking path of Lombardia Aerospace Cluster continues with the aim of bringing small and medium-sized companies closer to similar business realities, belonging to other European production districts and beyond. During the sixth Cluster2Cluster event, 40 entrepreneurs from 24 Lombardian and French aerospace companies from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cluster returned to meet. To frame the event and B2B meetings, which was also attended by Fabio Lunghi, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Varese which for many years has supported the Cluster in the promotion of the aerospace reality of the territory, were Secondo Mona in Somma Lombardo and the Venegono Superiore plant of Leonardo Group Aircraft Division..

Objective of the meeting: to follow up the partnerships estabished during the Lyon mission in November 2018. “To ensure that companies can build a solid network of contacts, sharing technological knowledge with similar Clusters to ours: this is the purpose of business initiatives networking like this, which we have been carrying out with conviction for two years now” comments Angelo Vallerani, President of the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster. Also present at the meeting was the Vice-President of the French Cluster Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Benoît-Etienne Guignard: “We are neighbors, our Clusters are very similar, in terms of size and type of businesses. We hope to find a way to work together, by sharing projects and skills. Surely this second meeting lays the right foundations for a fruitful future collaboration “. After Switzerland and Germany, chosen as the destination of the Cluster2Cluster project due to proximity and numbers of commercial exchanges, it was the turn of France, a strategic partner of the Lombardian aerospace industry.

The commercial exchange between Lombardia and France

France, in the first nine months of 2019 (last available data), was the second destination market for Lombardian aerospace exports, for a value of approximately 88 million euros, an increase of 5% compared to the first nine months of last year. On the other hand, import amounted to 35 million euros, also up (+ 47%) compared to the first nine months of 2018. In the same period, Lombardian aerospace exports touched 768 million euros, while import amounted to 481 million euros. In practice, export to France alone represent more than 11% of the sector’s international Lombardian trade.

Previous missions

The Cluster2Cluster project, coordinated by Massimo Maronati, Member of Lombardia Aerospace Cluster Board, kicked off in February 2018, with a first pilot meeting, held in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden, where the representatives of the Lombardian aerospace sector meet the Swiss Aerospace Cluster companies. It was then the turn of the Swiss, together with the German Cluster Forum Luft-und Raumfahrt Baden-Württemberg, to visit Lombardia in October 2018. It was the following month’s mission to Lyon to meet the Aerospace Cluster Auvergne-Rhône- Alpes and its SMEs. In May 2019, then, the meeting in Wrocław with the Polish Cluster Dolnośląski Klaster Lotniczy. The last appointment of the business networking path, excluding the present, was held in Stuttgart in December and was dedicated to meet the Baden-Württemberg Cluster and the Swiss Aerospace Cluster.