Foreign companies in Tuscany

Tuscany boasts a considerable presence of foreign investors that are strongly rooted in the region's local reality, and their numbers continue to grow. If we consider the dynamics of foreign participation, in the 2000-2005 period, we can see a positive trend with a marked growth in the overall number of businesses (from 283 to 357, +26.1%) and the number of employees (from 30.210 to 33.775, +11.8%).

There are 373 foreign commercial holdings in Tuscany (at 31-12-2008, data source: R&P Ricerche e Progetti), these businesses occupy 36.746 employees and, in 2008, they realized a turnover of 15.222 million Euro contributing to the gross regional product with an added value of over 3.600 million Euro.

Foreign commercial holdings are mainly concentrated in the manufacturing sector, 137 companies with 25,449 employees, a turnover of almost 10.300 million Euro and an added value of almost 2.3 billion.

Tuscany's main investor countries, for both number of businesses and number of employees, are the United States, France and Germany.
Among the major companies operating in Tuscany there are: LILLY, NOVARTIS (ex-Chiron) and BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM in the pharmaceutical sector; SOLVAY in basic chemical industries and TIOXIDE in specialty chemical industries; NUOVO PIGNONE (acquired in 1994 by General Electric and currently the leading producer of the US group in the gas turbine sector); FABIO PERINI; PENTAIR PUMPS and LEADER PUMPS, in mechanics.

Almost half of foreign commercial holdings are concentrated in the province of Florence, the Tuscan capital is followed byl provinces: Livorno, Pisa, Lucca, and Siena which also have a strong presence of foreign companies in their territory.

Table- Foreign companies in Tuscany (at 2008)

Graph- Sectors of activities of the foreign companies in Tuscany (2008)