Caffo (D-Marin): "We're looking to Southern Italy to further expand our network."
The regional director of the company that recently acquired Porto Mirabello agrees that Italy needs to offer more berths for super and giga yachts.
Genoa - At the Genoa International Boat Show, D-Marin, the Greek-based marina network, was unveiled at a press conference. Founded in 2003, it operates six marinas in Italy, thanks in part to several recent major acquisitions. The latest addition was Porto Mirabello in La Spezia, a 40.000-square-meter facility with 407 berths ranging from 12 to 140 meters. The company acquired the entire stake from founder Alessandro Menozzi and DeA Capital Real Estate SGR. The same marina company will later build a new marina in Livorno and manage another in Varazze, Liguria, in partnership with the Vitelli family, founders of Azimut Benetti.
D-Marin's selection of marinas spans the entire Mediterranean basin and beyond, offering a total of 14.000 berths with dry dock facilities that can accommodate over 2.500 vessels.
D-Marin also manages Punta Faro near Venice, added to the network in 2022, and Marina di Varazze in Liguria, in collaboration with the Vitelli family, founders of Azimut Benetti. Porto Mirabello is the third Italian marina to join the network in 2024 alone, following Aregai and San Lorenzo in Liguria.
D-Marin has also begun construction of a marina in Livorno next to the Azimut-Benetti shipyard, with the aim of creating a world-renowned facility to accommodate the finest superyachts. The first berths will be available in 2025.
SUPER YACHT 24 interviewed Nicolò Caffo, Regional Director for Italy.
Dr. Caffo, does your company formally enter the marinas by acquiring concessionaires or subconcessionaires?
"We almost always acquire 100% of the company that holds the concession contract for a marina, thus effectively becoming the concessionaire. This applies to almost all the marinas in our network, although there are some, including Varazze, that are only managed and therefore have a management contract with the owner."
Where do you see opportunities still to be seized at D-Marin in Italy?
Italy is a Mediterranean country with many coastlines and marinas, so there are many new opportunities. Let's say the golden triangle for us is the one between the French Riviera, Liguria, and Tuscany, so that's traditionally the best area. Furthermore, there are some trends in the world of premium marinas that are changing a bit.
For example?
For example, the marinas in Southern Italy, which were once purely seasonal, operating three or four months a year and then essentially empty in the winter, are no longer the case. There are still premium marinas in Southern Italy, with large boats and over 80% of annual contracts, so they're active year-round and therefore fall within D-Marin's target market. Therefore, in addition to the Northern Italian coasts and the Golden Triangle I mentioned, Southern Italy is certainly a potential development area for us.
In Italy, compared to other foreign markets (primarily the French Riviera), what do marinas have more and less in terms of offerings?
Furthermore, we have Italy, in the sense that Italy is obviously a perfect tourist destination, offering both beautiful areas to visit both on the sea (coast) and inland (land), so it is a natural attraction. In this sense, Italy has much more to offer than the other Mediterranean coasts.
Speaking of what we lack, marinas in Italy are traditionally seen as just a place to moor a boat, or little more. A marina concept similar to that of the French Riviera, where it's a place to be experienced fully and where, in addition to mooring a boat with a good reception service, there are also many other services like restaurants, bars, shops, so people go there even just for a stroll, an ice cream, and dinner out. This concept is rare in Italy. You see it in Varazze, in Porto Mirabello, but in many other places, we say it essentially doesn't exist. This is a model we absolutely must push toward; we must align ourselves with the French Riviera in this regard. Croatia is already doing it (the most beautiful Croatian marinas are essentially comparable to those on the French Riviera). In Italy, with a few exceptions I mentioned, we have to get there, but we will get there. But it's a path of growth in an area of improvement that needs work.
Are there insufficient berths for super and giga yachts in Italy? What plans does D-Marin have to meet this growing demand?
Certainly, there are numerous, frequent, and widespread berths for superyachts on the French Riviera, but not so much in Italy. If we look at the Ligurian and Tuscan coastline, berths for yachts over 60 meters are available in Mirabello, and will be available in Livorno, and little further afield. Furthermore, as the major Italian shipyards demonstrate, yachts are increasingly becoming larger, and those driving the luxury yachting market today are yachts over 15-20 meters. Therefore, berths like these are necessary. In Porto Mirabello, we will develop more than those already there, and in Livorno, there will be several. This will undoubtedly be a focus in the coming years.
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