MILAN, Jan. 17 (Class Editori) — F.I.L.A.’s India mission. The Group, which is also famous for its premium brands such as Giotto, Tratto, DAS, Didò, Pongo, and LYRA, announced that it will invest 15 million euros in the Asian country this year, as much as it spent in 2021 for the entire conglomerate.
This is to double production capacity in what has become the second largest global market for the company. The multinational with more than 650 million euros in sales and listed on Milan’s Euronext Star since 2015 has been present in India through Doms Industries since 2012, when the local subsidiary created by the Indian family Raveshia-Rajani had a turnover of 10 million euros.
After double-digit average annual growth, accelerating in recent fiscal years, F.I.L.A. expects to reach 110 million euros in revenues in the subcontinent in latest financial statement, an advance of about 50% over pre-COVID-19 2019 figures, and to grind out as much “significant double-digit growth for the next five years”.
The forecast leverages the number of children under the age of 10, who therefore fall under the compulsory school requirement: that is about 300 million people, more than double the number in the US, Italy, France, and Mexico, F.I.L.A.’s target markets combined, so potential consumers in need of colored pencils and markers.
This is the core-business of the century-old Fabbrica Italiana di Lapis ed Affini (F.I.L.A.) taken over in 1956 by the Candela family and relaunched since the mid-1990s by the third generation, where F.I.L.A., operating as well in the drawing paper segment, is a world leader.
Considering that in India more than 3.4% of GDP (3.176 trillion dollars in 2021) relates to education and, broadening the age group to 14 years old, potential child consumers grow to 350 million out of a population of 1.4 billion, it is clear why F.I.L.A.’s CEO and owner, Massimo Candela, considers India “the most important country where to do business in the next 10 years”.
Thanks to a very active international shopping spree (14 acquisitions since 1994) financed by resorting to a mix of debt and austerity on dividends, Candela has transformed a 20-million-turnover family SME selling only two product lines (Tratto Pen for writing and Giotto for color), zero profits and growing debt into a school, art and creative expression-related products giant with 653.5-million revenue, 109.1-million EBITDA, 42.5-million adjusted net income and a negative net financial position of 350 million.
F.I.L.A., worth 322 million market-cap, now operates in 150 countries, has 35 branches, 22 production factories (20 across borders) and employs more than 10,900 people. In addition, 92% of sales come from abroad and, in the last half-yearly report, 44% from North America and 14.5% from Asia, while 31.7% from Europe, 9.5% from Central and South America, and 0.4% from the rest of the world.
Thanks to India’s pull on the school-office segment and the usual leverage of M&A, the Group expects Asia to generate more than 20% of revenues in 3-4 years. In addition, Candela’s newly announced investments put fuel in the industrial machine to tap the potential of the eastern market.
(Source:Class Editori)
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