With a record number of 128 projects totaling 4,601 meters 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.
This confirms the highlights presented by the Group, which reports an order book today totaling 1.5 billion euros and value of production for the current season forecast to exceed one billion euros, a 20% rise on the previous year (2020/2021).
Azimut|Benetti’s leadership goes back a long way: according to the ranking, the Group 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 client-centric approach and high build quality,” said Azimut|Benetti 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,” said Giovanna 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, by investing in research and infrastructure to reduce the consumption of our yachts by 30% and significantly cut emissions. This is a tangible result achieved through the extensive use of carbon fibre – a material with production processes that we have internalized for use in yacht building – and investing in the optimization of hulls and propulsion systems,” added Vitelli.
To back this up, the Group has confirmed a three-year R&D investment plan worth 100 million euros.
