Ocean magazine:
You started at Azimut in 1996 – what has changed in the company over the past 30 years, and what has kept you there?
Marco Valle:
When I started, Azimut was a small, very dynamic company and very flexible, and it has kept that flexibility over the past 30 years, which I think has been part of its success. Its soul developed to be very innovative while retaining a leadership position within the industry. When I joined, it was experiencing double-digit growth year on year. There were plenty of opportunities – I was travelling all over the world, and the company was investing a lot in its product, as it always will – and even when everything changed and the world collapsed with the financial crisis, the company’s mentality meant it was well placed to manage the economic scenarios we faced, and opportunities arose even during those darker global economic periods.
Azimut has been at the forefront of developing new ideas in design – what have been the most significant leaps and models over the past 30 years?
We were very lucky to find designer Stefano Righini – it led to a genius period with a lot of new, innovative yachts launched at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the Azimut 46 and the Azimut 55, which was the first smaller yacht to feature a midships master cabin. Then came the 68S, which was the first coupé-style yacht with the large aft glass doors and windows in the hull.
The 98 Leonardo was an incredible coupé, then we introduced the Magellano Series, which basically reinvented the navetta style of boat. Another of Stefano’s successful designs, one of his last Azimuts, was the Grande 27M, which was introduced in 2017 and is still in production today. Although it’s 26.78 metres length overall, it falls under the 24-metre boundary – it was
the first 27-metre yacht to offer five guest cabins. We’ve delivered more than 90 to date! More recently, we have the 38-metre Grande Trideck, which marked the introduction of designer Alberto Mancini to Azimut, and the Seadeck Series, which are the most efficient ever designed by Azimut, with 40-percent reduced emissions in a year of typical use, extended use of recycled and recyclable materials, and the introduction of the Fun Island cockpit design.
What do you think will be the next big design feature?
Design has changed a lot over the past five years because the way people use their boats has changed – there’s a much more social focus. Buyers today are different from buyers in the past, and the way they think about boating is different – more lifestyle, less formality – and this has a direct impact on design in terms of spaces and inside-outside areas. I’m old, and I remember that 30 years ago, you needed a formal dining area and a formal saloon, even on family boats, and everyone wore a smart jacket, but now, people wear shorts and flip-flops on board.
You recently formally opened the renovated headquarters for Azimut – what are the features of the new building?
The new HQ is the icing on the cake of a €160-million, three-year investment that we’ve made in R&D and facilities, including our production and manufacturing sites – it includes a nod to our heritage as well as elements for the future, such as open-plan workspaces and even a full virtual-reality suite.
On the production side, the market demand post-2021 was insane, and instead of just thinking of building more boats, we decided to invest in making the company more efficient for when the market rationalised and reverted to more normal levels, like we’re seeing now.
As a group, we build yachts from 40 feet to over 100 metres in length, and the process for a Verve 42 is very different to that of a custom 80-metre. For the smaller models, we’ve invested a lot in very efficient processes, but even within Azimut, we’ve more than 25 models and a mix of products, so it’s a very complex operation!
You’ve talked a lot in the past about sustainability, and have been critical of some parts of the industry for greenwashing. What actions have you taken towards sustainability with Azimut?
As a company, we try to be very concrete, and we’ve said over the last few years that most people speak about sustainability without really thinking that the word implies doing something, not just declaring something.
First of all, most clients at the moment are not looking specifically for sustainable factors – they’re not against them if those factors are on board, but they’re not willing to pay more for them.
Second, we focus on what can be used right now, not in the future. There isn’t one single solution to be 100 percent sustainable on board, but there are different ways to follow your target. For example, when we launch a new model, it has to be 20 percent more efficient than the previous model, and this is usually achieved through a combination of factors such as high-efficiency hulls, extensive use of carbon to reduce the yacht’s weight, and pod propulsion systems. That in turn means emissions will be reduced because fuel consumption is reduced.
With models like our Seadeck Series, we use recycled materials extensively. Moreover, because a fair share of consumption happens when the yacht is at anchor, we also focus on things like using windows that protect from UV rays and heat radiation, so we can still have large windows without overloading the air conditioning, which leads to another energy saving.
Sustainability through a reduction in CO2 emissions is not something that a client will typically pay more for, however, they will pay more for increased comfort level – they’re much more willing to discuss it in terms of increasing comfort rather than reducing consumption, although at the end of the day, the target is the same for the builder, and this is where we see our role as leading the way towards more conscious yachting.
