Characterised by a highly technical content and technological innovation, the Turin industrial companies operate in many various areas: car manifacturing, robotics and industrial automation, design, textiles, agroindustrial, banking and insurance, information technologies and telecommunications, publishing and printing. The industrial fabric of the city is not only made up of mechanical engeneering giants, but also includes a vast range of small and medium-sized firms producing a variety of goods for the home market and for export.

Set at the geographical and economic crossroad of two strategically significant continental axes, Turin now possesses the air, rail and road links needed to place it at the heart of Europe. Today, the city not only wants to be an "old industrial town", but, above all, wants to concentrate its innovative powers on the advanced services sector, on global networks and on highly technological research and development: infact, about 20% of the total Italian business expenditure in these sector is located in the Turin area

The current watchword is therefore "productive diversification", also made possible by a continuing development of research activities in the various sectors. It is an effort that involves a large number of very diverse institutions in both the public and the private sectors, of medium and large dimensions: from Cselt to the FIAT Research Centre, from the RAI Research Centre to the Istituto Galileo Ferraris, the University and the Polytechnic.

In particular, in the motor car industry, besides the Fiat Group- Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, founded by Giovanni Agnelli in 1899, the most important industrial group in Italy - Turin hosts a number of companies operating in the components and car design sectors like SKF, Dayco, Bertone, Italdesign-Giugiaro and Pininfarina.

The city has also an important presence in the agroindustrial area: the Lavazza, an international leader in the coffee sector, is from Turin, a reality that perfectly combines technological development and production with tradition. Today Lavazza Ltd., who employs over 1,600 people, boasts 45% of the Italian market and exports nearly 30% of its annual output, with sales revenues of some billion 1,200 lire.

The city and the surrounding area is home to some of the best known producers of sparkling wines and spirits, such as Cinzano, Martini & Rossi, Gancia or the confectionery industry with firms like Ferrero, Caffarel and Peyrano. Their high quality products and professional expertise help to mantain the prestige of the Turin tradition.

The textile industry, identified on a regional scale by companies that produce world-renowned yarns and fabrics of superlative quality, is represented in Turin by the GFT group, manifacturer of, among other, such famous names as Valentino, Cerruti and Ungaro. Set up in 1930 by the Rivetti and Levy families, GFT has become, in over 60 years, a huge industrial empire that in 1996 employed 6,000 people, over 3,300 in Italy, working in 14 factories around the world, and has sales revenues of 1,650 billion lire, and produced 15 million garments.

Also in the banking and insurance sectors there is a very strong presence: the Istituto Bancario San Paolo has its headquarters in Turin that, with over 22,000 employees, 1,200 branches and 1,400 cash points, is the most important bank in Italy. It is a position the bank has achieved after more than 430 years of service to the growth of the nation's economy, participating in the reconstruction of the Nation after World War II, supporting the economic boom of the Sixties, and contributing to the national and international growth of the market and Italian companies. Also operating in he Piedmontese capital, since 1827, is the CRT Bank, the second largest savings bank in Italy, that has 380 branches spread over eight regions: a bank built for the people, mindful to the needs of the small saver and families.

To compete the picture, the most important co-operative bank in Europe, the Banca Popolare di Novara , and three of the nation's oldest established insurance companies, Sai, Toro and Reale Mutua Assicurazioni, are all based in Turin. SAI, Italy's third largest insurance group with over 3.8 million clients, and 1,580 billion lire of net capital of the Parent Company alone, has been in the insurance business for over 70 years.

Toro Assicurazioni, with over 160 years of history, was founded in 1833 by some of the Royal Decree of King Carlo Alberto. It is the sixth largest insurance group in Italy for the amount of sales revenues, and one of the first as regards its economic results (over 1,700 billion lire of premiums in 1966) and financial soundness.

Reale Mutua was founded in 1828 and is currently the nation's biggest mutual insurance company with over 1 million clients insured and more than 2 million policies, and has a significant presence in the international market (Spain and France).

Turin is equally well represented in more innovative fields like information technologies and telecommunications. Turin is indeed an important centre, being home to the headquarters of Stet-Telecom Italia, the sixth largest telecommunications company in the world.

The city is also authoritatively represented in a wide variety of other sectors like Einaudi, Utet, Sei, Allemandi and Bollati Boringhieri (publishing), Armando Testa and BGS (advertising), Robe di Kappa, Superga, Invicta (sportswear), De Fonseca (footwear) and Borbonese (leather goods and clothes accessories).