Italy’s luxury yacht builder, Ferretti Group is surging toward new horizons with a visionary strategy termed “Sea Different,” launching an industry first customer relations [CRM] platform, three new yacht models and positioning Asia Pacific [APAC] firmly in its sights for future growth.
FERRETTI 960 motoryacht
At the 36th Cannes International Boat Show in September Group Managing Director Ferruccio Rossi briefed a large gathering of clients, prospective buyers, media and industry luminaries on the strategy as Ferretti also announced the world the premier of its flagship motor yacht Ferretti 960, Ferretti 750 yacht and Pershing 62’.
Rossi declared: “Today we have the opportunity to boom in markets like APAC.” To this end he unveiled the Group’s strategic vision” “Sea Different.” Obviously a play on words, it denotes a determination to “see changes in the world” and act accordingly.
Ferretti are using catchy phrases like visionary [to get attention], bold [cool, leadership], inspiring [customer wants to be a part of it] and exciting [disruptive!] and it appears every conceivable means of communication now available—the Internet, smart phones, Android technology, web television, Facebook, Twitter and more to stamp its brand firmly on the world stage.
Ferretti 750 yacht
Such catch phrases are common in descriptions of the luxury boat industry, perhaps, but Ferretti’s strategy seems to have been very well thought through as it powers out of a period of restructuring and operating under new ownership.
The 2013-2018 industrial plan aims to consolidate turnover of approximately €600 million in 2018 with more balanced income from Europe, America and APAC. Ferretti is already investing around €80 million in new product and models.
Crucial to Ferretti’s APAC strategy is the support of its strategic partner SHIG-Weichai Group, a large conglomerate that produces, amongst other products, heavy duty tractors. Tan Xuguang, chairman and chief executive of the Group, is now chairman of Ferretti Group with Norberto Ferrettti, one of the two surviving brothers who founded the group, becoming honorary chairman.
The partnership seems to be working well. So much so that a 80 metre CRN mega yacht has been named “Chopi Chopi” the nickname of Mr. Tan’s wife.
Newly launched CRN 129 megayacht CHOPI CHOPI
Underpinning the new strategy is the splitting of the group into three product lines: Ferretti Yachts [flybridge motor yachts ranging between 15 and 29 metres]; Ferretti Custom Line [flybridge fibreglass planing yachts between 26 and 38 metres] and Ferretti Navetta [from the semi displacement line Navetta 26 Crescendo and Navetta 33 Crescendo.]
Complimenting this new structure are strategic alliances and an industry leading, state of the art, integrated customer relationship marketing [CRM] system already found in the fashion industry but nowhere else in the luxury yacht sector.
Said Stefano Campanelli, Ferretti Group Sales Director, the new CRM system will “fully change yachting culture in Ferretti and the entire world.” It will be one to one marketing.
Ferretti will employ every possible means of communication to maintain contact with clients and to market products. This means smart phones, tablets, all sources of the Internet, advertising, Facebook, Twitter and everything out in cyberspace. The revamped Ferretti website for Riva and Pershing will be in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and English.
The strategy is already producing results, with Riva alone, for example, achieving 17,000 Facebook “likes” off the new platform.
Pershing 62' Yacht
APAC The “New Frontier.”
Out of the boardroom and Ferretti’s headquarters and out on the water, the three new models on display in Cannes are part of an overall push to create an even spread of income from the key market regions of America, Europe and Asia Pacific by the year 2015. Rossi has called APAC, and particularly China, the region “the new frontier.”
Ferretti Group Managing Director Ferruccio Rossi on a RIVA boat
Rossi and a series of Ferretti product managers in Cannes emphasised the importance of producing such yachts for the APAC market. Ferretti achieved higher orders just a few months after establishing an on the ground presence in APAC, despite a tough economic climate.
Appointed Group Managing Director just over a year ago, the friendly and enthusiastic Rossi previously managed the Group’s American operation and before that ran the iconic Riva brand, acquired by Ferretti in 2000 and still its best known global brand. This is a man in charge who knows his product and is determined to tell the world: Ferretti is back and APAC is firmly in his sights!
With a strong financial background—his first association with Ferretti was launching a tender offer for the Group in 2002 while at Permira, a Milan based financial company—Rossi is now overseeing an aggressive growth programme into Asia Pacific. This includes targeting China, in particular, and also Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Indonesia and Australia.
Rossi is looking to increase the 30 percent share of Ferretti business APAC currently has to have an even proportion of the spread across APAC, Europe and the Americas, through a strategy of placing feet on the ground, or, in this case, opening up showrooms and offices headed by Ferretti employees across the globe.
China is home to APAC headquarters. Classy, eye catching showrooms have been opened in Hong Kong [and Palm Beach, Florida, for example] in association with other luxury brands, such as Italian shoe, clothes and handbag fashion icon Prada and also featuring gleaming Riva boats in the showroom.
Some markets, like Thailand, are more “mature” while others, like Indonesia, are seen as having enormous growth potential. Rossi said in the last seven to eight months there has been a higher level of ordering in APAC as this brand “ambassador” strategy kicks in [in Thailand, Phuket based Lee Marine, has represented Ferretti Group since 2004 and sold many Ferretti yachts in that time, including a Custom Line mega yacht in 2013].
Rossi points to developments like the Zhuhai-Macau-Hong Kong Bridge project in the Pearl River Delta as an opportunity for Ferretti to patch into the population growth and movement such a project will generate in this area. He has spent considerable time in his first year visiting Chinese cities.
“The only way to learn is to stay down on the marina to understand the way people think, to discuss and explain your experiences.”
He said: “Today we have the opportunity to boom in markets like APAC.”
By Alastair Carthew
