The first Period: 1996 - 2000
During the nineties, the territory North-West of Milan saw a drastic change in the economic scenario of its production environment, thus generating a radical transformation of the economic tissue., In an area of traditional industrialization, the closing of a considerable number of enterprises caused a strong reduction of the labour base, firstly within the cotton, shoemaking and tanning sectors and secondly in the mechanical one.
Facing this crisis, in 1995 the Province of Milano and the Municipality of Legnano decided to give birth to the “Committee for the re-industrialization of Legnano”, by which Euroimpresa has been created the following year. The aim was to sustain a re-industrialization process by making advantage of those European Funds that were assigned to this territory as an area of severe industrial decline (Objective 2 Area).
In the first few years, Euroimpresa’s activity was focused in assisting newcoming entrepreneurs and providing consultancy to existing enterprises. This mainly consisted in a search for funding in the areas of enterprise innovation, restructuring and internationalization. These activities were fully in line with the European Community trends of the mid 90’s and won Euroimpresa the recognition of BIC (Business Innovation Center).
Euroimpresa’s reference model focused on three major intervention lines:
- to develop an incubator where new small enterprises could be hosted and “looked after”;
- to activate some “center of excellence”, or better called “knowledge centers”: laboratories and certification agencies supporting enterprises with their technological assistance;
- to spot public funding opportunities and transform them into development projects for SMEs.