Keeping it in the family 

Although it’s only in the last three decades that the superyacht industry has really accelerated to become a serious global economic and employment powerhouse, there are plenty of shipyards that boast considerable heritage – and which, in turn, have had a considerable hand in shaping the communities that have grown around them. Take yacht brand Benetti as an example, which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, and which has always been a family business.

The story begins in 1873, when Lorenzo Benetti founded Benetti by acquiring the Darsena Luca shipyard in Viareggio. The company’s focus was on commercial ships with wooden construction, but that changed in 1914 when Lorenzo’s two sons took over, renamed the yard Fratelli Benetti, and expanded production to include ocean-going ships and, importantly, private yachts. The sons of the brothers took over the business and carried it into the post-war years, starting to build in steel for the first time until, in 1954, the two sides of the family split the business. M&B Benetti continued as the commercial shipbuilder, while Fratelli Benetti took on the sailing and yacht building side.

It was a fateful moment for the nascent large yacht industry – just a few years later, in the early 1960s, the next generation of the family in the form of a young Lorenzo Benetti made two moves that changed everything. First, he started building yachts in steel instead of wood, and second, he introduced three models between 18 and 33 metres to the market. Named the Delfino, the Gabbiano and the Mediterraneo, they introduced a new era of luxury, series-built superyachts that captured the imagination of the rich and famous. The era of the moto panfilo had arrived, and with it the advent of the yachting dolce vita.

The success of Benetti’s yachts brought it to worldwide attention and brought money and jobs to the region, but by the early 1980s the yard was struggling financially. It was at this point that another enterprising Italian boatbuilder, Paolo Vitelli, bought the yard and combined it with his Azimut brand of yachts. Fast forward two decades, and having built the Azimut|Benetti Group into a superyacht economic powerhouse, Vitelli brought his daughter Giovanna into the business. It was a move symbolic not only of the next generation of family ownership for the shipyard, but also the new generation of female leadership in the superyacht industry.

Like father, like daughter

Giovanna Vitelli was on the board of directors from the age of 21 but actually began her career outside of yachting, in law. After practising in Italy she was offered a job at a partner firm in the US, but she realised that the move would mark a turning point for the Azimut|Benetti Group. “I realised that if I left, there would be no handing down the generational baton and that my father would consider selling the company,” she begins.

“I felt I should at least try to ensure continuity – and the experience of working in the ‘outside world’ was incredibly invaluable,” she continues. “With over 2,000 employees and as many again in the supply chain, you simply can’t improvise, at least not without an in-depth knowledge of the company and its products, so I worked in various roles in different departments to gain a wider understanding of the business and its operations.”

Running a family business, she says, entails a high level of social responsibility towards employees and their families, so every decision taken goes beyond just corporate implications. “I also believe that while the family link is incredibly important and what makes a business like Benetti so successful, being totally run by the family isn’t necessarily the only way,” she continues. “That’s why my father and I empowered trusted [management] figures to take us forward. But my father was also a master of product development and I’ve grown up absorbing that and learning from him – that’s definitely a skill passed on through the generations.”

There’s also the Benetti family’s heritage to consider, and this remains central to the company’s ethos. “In the 1960s, Benetti revolutionised the yachting world by switching construction from wood to steel and ushering in the concept of the megayacht with its three model lines, which became icons because of their timeless design,” Vitelli enthuses. “Decades later, my father reinterpreted that timeless elegance with the Benetti Classic which still has an unbeaten record in sales, and we’ve continued the drive for innovation, most recently with onboard lifestyle features such as the Oasis Deck and Veranda Deck.”

Deep impact

Ties with local communities for a company like Benetti run deep and demonstrate the huge and lasting impact that a successful superyacht shipyard can have on local and regional geography and economy, particularly when viewed cumulatively over 150 years. As Vitelli highlights, Benetti’s expanded facilities in Viareggio and Livorno have contributed to the development of boatbuilding clusters in the region, which are creating new jobs and driving economic development in the surrounding areas too – as well as fostering a new generation of trades and craftspeople.

“We’ve calculated, for example, that the construction of the 107.6-metre Luminosity required over two million hours of work by more than 100 suppliers,” Vitelli cites. “That was just one of three ‘gigayachts’ over 100 metres we launched during a period of just 100 days. And if you consider that in the 2023/24 yachting season Benetti launched over 20 composite, steel and aluminium yachts from 34 metres and up in length, its impact on the area is enormous.”

Collaboration with such a vast supplier network reflects Benetti’s philosophy of bringing together fine Italian craftsmanship and the most advanced technological solutions from around the world, Vitelli says. “We’re proud to be a constant point of reference in the industry,” she adds, “promoting local development and contributing to Italy’s global reputation for excellence.”

The next generation

It doesn’t just stop there, though – the company is also making steps to encourage the next generation of potential industry leaders. “Last year we inaugurated the Azimut|Benetti Group Corporate Academy, the first business school in our sector dedicated to training leading professionals and emerging talents in the yacht industry,” Vitelli explains. “Our Corporate Academy offers comprehensive education across four distinct areas: the Shipyard Academy and the Executive Academy focus on upskilling, reskilling, and executive education for Group employees; the Development & Career Path encompasses various internal growth trajectories centred on corporate culture and management; and the Education and Guidance Projects engage over 300 students from both national and international schools.”

More than that, Vitelli, like her father, is acutely aware of the shipyard’s history and legacy – and carrying that forward to the next generation too. “Our heritage is rooted in a tradition of quality, craftsmanship, innovation and family vision going back over 150 years,” she offers. “We’re proud to preserve and perpetuate the Benetti brand,” she concludes. “It’s a formidable legacy that I feel honoured to carry forward with a focus on the future of our industry, continuing to innovate and invest in research and development and integrating the latest technologies in our yachts with the aim of combining tradition and modernity”.