ANIBO, Italian National Association Buying Office was founded in Florence in 1956, with the aim of offering an increasingly efficient service to foreign buyers interested in buying Italian products.
In more than 60 years of activity, ANIBO offices have made the world discover Italian taste, genius and culture, who have created and continue to create exclusive and unrepeatable products.
The small masterpieces of Made in Italy are born every day in craftsmanship or in technological industries spread throughout Italy. ANIBO’s Buying Offices job is to research and develop this high quality production, helping the Italian companies to meet more effectively with the need of the foreign buyer.
The deep knowledge of the production system and the Italian market are the main characteristic of the ANIBO associates, combined with passion, introspection and the ability to mediate.
Thanks to these synergies with the territory and international buyer networks, ANIBO manages to direct foreign customers to those supplies that best suit their needs, meeting demand and offer of Made in Italy. ANIBO’S buying offices handle all the most important product categories, from food to gift items, from clothing to fashion accessories, form leather to fabrics, from toys to furnishings.
Every associated office has its traditions and merchandise specialization, but all have in common the characteristic of offering a global and highly professional service aimed at the exclusive interest and satisfaction of the customer.
The first Italian buying office was born in 1923 in Florence with the aim of promoting the creativity of the Tuscan craftsmanship in the foreign markets, which at that time was very rich in the areas of straw, leather and alabaster.
In the following years, with the advent of the Fascist regime and the autarchy policy, export collapsed to resume in the post-war period. At that time, with the return of large US and non – US buyers, favoured by the Marshall Plan, there was a re-opening of direct and independent offices to help foreign customers to buy and medium size factories as well as small artisans family companies to produce for export.
ANIBO was born in 1956 when a group of these offices, which have been operating abroad for years, decided to join an association to better protect their category and at the same time collaborate with institutions for the development and promotion of Made in Italy in the world.
At that time ANIBO played a central role in the years of the Italian economic miracle and on the establishment of Made in Italy in the world. These are the years of Pitti’s show in Sala Bianca at Palazzo Pitti, promoted by Marchese Giorgini, buyer and first ANIBO president. And precisely at this time the most important fairs to which ANIBO contributes in a significant way are born: the Pitti Donna and the Mait of knitwear in the 60s, the Gift for the gift article, Leather Line for the entire leather industry in 70s, demonstrations that see the fashion excellence such as Pucci and Ferragamo.
These are also the years of the first big Italian Promotions, authentic Italian weeks selling our products within the most prestigious department stores around the world, correlated with a presence of institutions that also had a promotional, tourist and cultural function. In the following years ANIBO has supported many small Italian artisan companies to grow and turn into real industries.
In the dramatic events of 1966, ANIBO plays a decisive role in rescuing companies damaged by the flood of the Arno. Thanks to the intervention of then ANIBO president Enzo Tayar, Marchese Pucci and President of America Chamber of Commerce Beppe Fantacci, after a trip to New York , more than one and a half million dollars (a huge amount for those times) were donated by American department stores, all ANIBO office customers, to benefit 316 flood-damaged companies, all of their customers’ customer on a list drawn up by ANIBO.
ANIBO has always maintained its identity and image in the years, trying to follow the market trends and treating the quality of both the customer and the products, in parallel with the various crises and revolutions of the Italian industry.The new millennium has seen ANIBO ever more active in collaboration with institutions to unite public and private in the common intent to relaunch the Italian product in the world.
Despite of the serious difficulties of our production system and a general contraction in international consumption, as well as the objective high cost of the Italian product, ANIBO still contributes today to the export of over 500 million euro of products to customer on all continents.