Yachting / AZIMUT BENETTI

AZIMUT BENETTI

WORLD'S LEADING PRODUCER OF MEGA YACHTS

By Andrea Dini

Once again this year Azimut Benetti onfirms its position as the world’s top builder of yachts over 24 metres in length.

With a record number of 128 projects totalling 4,601 metres in length, Azimut Benetti Group leads the field for the 22nd year in the Global Order Book, the annual ranking of the world’s top producers of yachts drawn up by highly reputed yachting magazine Boat International.

Azimut Benetti ranked first out of 186 shipyards on five continents, accounting for 12.5% of the total number of projects, which is a significant percentage in such a fragmented market.

The group leadership goes back a long way: according to the ranking, Azimut Benetti has been the world’s number one yacht builder for a remarkable 22 years. “Our Group owes its long-standing leadership to the ability to build highly innovative yachts that are greatly appreciated by the market and cover the typically Italian size range of up to 50 metres. But this important segment is also joined by numerous larger steel and aluminium superyacht projects, traditionally the preserve of northern European shipyards. We are the leading player today, and have been for over 20 years, because we are the only Group in the world to cover both these size ranges with models of undisputed success, a clientcentric approach and high build quality,” said Vice President Giovanna Vitelli.

The Group’s strategy is therefore based on the following key factors: a highly diversified range of models,

unfailingly innovative design with state-of-the-art solutions, and the gaining of know-how that puts Azimut|Benetti in a privileged position on today’s market.

“Our success stems from close alignment between the vision and new product development insights of the entrepreneur on the one hand, and the absolute professionalism of the management team on the other, establishing an understanding that makes us a very solid company. In this way, we have successfully maintained our leadership in both good times for the market as well as in more difficult ones,” continues Vitelli.

This well-established structure and approach ensure that the company is focused on its corporate mission, in which product innovation is the main driving force. In the last 15 years in particular, the Group has focused on issues around protecting the sea, working profitably to find solutions that reduce environmental impact in both the short and long term. The most recent examples are the 108-metre Giga Yacht Luminosity, the world’s largest hybrid yacht, which has a range of over ten nautical miles in fully electric mode, and the steel superyacht B.Yond 37M, which is fitted with the E-MODE HYBRID system. Developed on an exclusive basis with Siemens Energy, the propulsion system of B.Yond 37M significantly reduces emissions (up to 70% NOx and up to 20% CO2), not least by using urea-based Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) filters on the main engines, like those installed in cars. When she is launched in the first half of 2022, she will be the greenest yacht in her segment. The shipyard is now ready to transfer the solutions introduced on the Giga yachts to smaller units as well.

“For us, efficiency and reducing fuel consumption are not just slogans for the future, but milestones we are achieving in the present" added Vitelli.

To back this up, the Group has confirmed a three-year R&D investment plan worth 100 million euros.