There is a silent and strategic challenge being played out in the goldsmith district of Arezzo, born 100 years ago with the company Gori&Zucchi, ancestor of the current UnoAerre, which brought to an industrial level a goldsmith tradition started by the Etruscans and perfected during the Renaissance. The ongoing challenge is not only digital, energetic, and environmental, but can be summed up as a true “productive transition.”
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The historic industry producing goldsmithing is shrinking. In 2024, exports had a “spike” (from 3.9 to 8 billion euros), driven by the rise in gold prices and, above all, by purchases from Turkey which, due to a change in tax regulations, bought Arezzo chains and semi-finished products in large quantities, causing the revenues of a handful of companies in this segment to skyrocket. But as soon as the regulation changed, goldsmithing declined again, weakened by global competition and the war in the area historically dear to Arezzo, the Middle East. More or less in the same period, an industry that had long remained in the shadows and was accused, in reports by economic institutes such as Bankitalia and Irpet, of being low value-added, exploded: it is the refining and investment gold bullion industry, which includes the recovery of precious metals from industrial scraps and waste and the construction of machines for producing the same bullion.
In 2025, exports of goldsmithing and jewelry in Arezzo plummeted to 4.5 billion euros, marking -41%. In the same year, bullion exports rose by 128%, approaching 11 billion euros. Among the top 15 Tuscan companies by 2025 revenue, four spots are occupied by bullion producers: Italpreziosi (5.9 billion in revenue, +50% over 2024, with a profit of 5.2 million and 96 employees); Chimet (5.7 billion in revenue, in line with 2024, with 41.5 million profit and 150 employees); Tca (2.4 billion in revenue with 3.8 million profit and 150 employees) and Safimet (1.3 billion in revenue with 6.3 million profit and 70 employees). Total: 15.2 billion and 470 employees. These four companies, all family-owned, are the main engine of Tuscan export growth.
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In the first quarter of 2026, goldsmithing lost another 49% of foreign sales, triggering more than one alarm bell among companies and workers. At the same time, bullion exports rose from almost two billion euros to over six billion, with a jump of four billion in three months. The result was again influenced by the increase in gold prices (which also applies to jewelry). But, in a growing safe-haven goods market, it mainly paid off the “know-how” of Arezzo: the precious metals recovery and refining industry (the metal purification process), chemical and mechanical innovation are well established and cutting-edge here. It is one of the few areas in Europe that concentrates all the skills to make bullion. “First of all – explains Luca Benvenuti, CEO of Chimet, a company of the Squarcialupi family that also owns UnoAerre – you must have the availability of the metal and certify its origin. For six years we have used only gold recovered from industrial scraps and waste, an activity in which we specialize. We have a fully circular process and certified sources.” Chimet produces bullion from over 1 Kg up to standard 12.5 kg bars certified Good Delivery directed to banks (mainly Swiss), financial institutions, and other professional operators.
No one denies that bullion production requires a limited number of employees compared to other industrial sectors: “We hire a few units, not dozens of people – explains Benvenuti – but this activity is a strategic resource for Italy, because we work with critical raw materials, recover materials such as platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, generating GDP and exports.”
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