The ceramic tile industry in a global context and the development into Latin America: A case study of Mirage Granito S.p.A.

Over the past years, the ceramic tile industry has seen radical changes in terms of supply and demand, this mainly due to globalization of trade and new emerging markets. Latin American countries are playing a key role in the industry, increasing demand of ceramic tiles and establishing production facilities in order to create supply fulfilment for regional consumption. Julien P. Le Boursicault underlines the international characteristics of the sectors, the evolution from historical players, the Italian and Spanish cluster, to a more dynamic and contemporaneous reality, the boom of emerging markets such as China, India, Iran and Brasil. Moreover, this thesis establishes a specific focus on the company Mirage Granito S.p.A. top player in the Italian ceramic industry, that has set in motion an internationalization process allowing it to consolidate an international business network. This international process has taken Mirage to establish itself in the Latin American market, with a strategical venture in Costa Rica, that will be developed as the main argument related to their presence in this region.