Fincantieri launches Operae Interiors for nautical interior design
The Sanlorenzo, Baglietto and Benetti shipyards are already among the company's clients, which aims to expand in the Marche region and looks to Northern Europe for the future.
Milan - Leveraging the wealth of expertise and supplier relationships that Fincantieri has developed over the years in cruise ship interior design, bringing it to the nearby nautical sector and 'ashore', namely to projects relating to hotels, villas, shops and offices, all in the luxury segment.
This is the ambition behind the launch of Operae Interiors, a spin-off of the naval engineering group's Marine Interiors division, which will retain exclusive rights to the "white ships" business and holds an 85% stake in the new entity. The remaining 15% of the joint venture is held by Aam Srl, a company specifically formed by three private partners from the civilian sector, who have brought to Operae their connections and experience in the "mainland" sector.
Already quietly active for about three years – with projects curated in particular for Sanlorenzo and Baglietto – Operae Interiors was officially presented today at an event held at Fincantieri's Milan offices, where the objectives for the coming years were also outlined.
If 2024 closes with total revenues of approximately €13 million, the forecast is to reach €50 million by 2028, counting on a market that is seen as very thriving for all the aforementioned sectors. "Our sector is contract furniture," explained CEO Davide Biddiri. "There is a potential market niche worth €20 billion, relating to luxury projects such as boutiques, private villas, restaurants, hotels, and yachts." Operae Interiors currently has under its belt the construction of offices, boutiques (for Marni, in Paris), restaurants (the Bauscia, in downtown Milan), and hospitality spaces (including at CERN in Geneva). Approximately a third of the estimated turnover for the current and future years comes and will continue to come from nautical projects (five for Baglietto, one for Sanlorenzo, plus a refit for Benetti in 2024), a segment in which the company is specifically looking at "full custom" units, 40 meters and above, Biddiri clarified.
Operae Interiors' offering, its CEO further explained, is characterized by the provision of turnkey, end-to-end solutions, including planning, executive design, construction, and after-sales service, and covering areas such as carpentry, glasswork, cladding, surfaces, upholstery, and lighting. The company, which does not have its own production capacity, relies on approximately 500 (and growing) suppliers, mostly Italian SMEs (approximately 90% according to the CEO), with a strong representation (approximately 75%) from the Northeast. For its part, the Marine Interiors subsidiary currently has four offices in Italy: an office in Milan, another in La Spezia for projects with shipyards it has managed to date, one in Treviso, an area where many of its suppliers are based, and finally one in Ronchi dei Legionari, equipped with a 2.500-square-meter area for mock-ups, i.e. test setups for customers, mostly architectural firms or shipyard procurement offices. The current staff number 30.
Relying on the strength of Made in Italy and the broad support of a majority shareholder like Fincantieri, Operae Interiors, as we've seen, aims for significant growth over the next four years. "In the nautical sector, a next goal will be to expand from the La Spezia market to the Marche region," Business Development Manager Alberto Tomé explained on the sidelines of the event. "We have ongoing discussions with, for example, Palumbo, Ferretti, and Tankoa." Looking further ahead, the horizon could instead be Northern Europe. "This is a market that offers higher margins," Biddiri added, "but for which the lack of in-house production capacity could be a limitation. We will therefore consider starting joint ventures with suppliers at that point."
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