Maritimo sights set on the future
by Paul Wilson 21 Nov 2019 11:30 PST
Maritimo at Perth © Darren Gill
Leading Australian luxury motor yacht manufacturer Maritimo is the most advanced in its history with the brand's global outreach strategy pushing strongly throughout Australasia and The Americas.
A proud family owned Australian company, Maritimo is the largest production boat manufacturer of its kind in the country that still keeps all facets of its design, new product development and production within Australia.
Founded 15 years ago and employing more than 300 staff and contractors, with economical benefits reaching thousands within its local economy, Maritimo has been a true Australian corporate success story.
It exports approximately half of its annual production around the world and has earned a reputation and recognition for robust high-quality construction, leading edge design and exemplary product performance around the industry.
And the Maritimo story is only just getting started.
Maritimo's production facility is now the most advanced motor yacht manufacturing facility of its kind in Australia.
The company has just recently completed a $13 million expansion of its production facility at the Coomera Marine Precinct on Queensland's Gold Coast and at the same time set in place the strongest global network of representatives in the brand's 15 year history.
Maritimo CEO Garth Corbitt said the facility forms the foundation of the brand's global expansion strategy that has already seen the company achieve their most successful years ever in 2018 and 2019 with record figures of 30% sales growth recorded. Sales into the USA so far this calendar year (up to mid November) are up 60 percent on the same period in 2018 year.
"Never before have we been so well established to take the brand forward and increase our awareness levels and ultimately sales in the most significant international markets," he said.
"This global expansion strategy has been formulated by the senior management team over a period of years and it has been necessary to get the foundations set correctly before embarking on that journey.
"Naturally you have to have the product and the capacity at the back end to achieve that and we are confident we have" he said. "Our product line is as diverse as it has ever been, our investment into new product development has been extremely successful, all with our physical production footprint doubling in the past 18 months providing the capacity for future expansion."
Maritimo General Manager Operations, Phil Candler, said the factory expansion enabled Maritimo to diversify its product range and ultimately increase the size of its vessel offerings without interfering with current production.
"The new advanced facilities are capable of developing projects up to 100 feet, which enables great flexibility of new product offerings for future product expansion." he said.
"We now have Design and New Product Development divisions located together for better integration of design into new product prototypes and tooling, with more productive flow of ideas and information between design and production."
The total plant area now covers 4.664 hectares and the expansion increased overall building area by 52 percent.
The recently announced Maritimo One custom division, enabling Maritimo owners to make significant changes to their base model vessels, is also located in the new advanced facilities.
"Maritimo has been internationally renowned for the level in which it enables client customisation, where most other brands have set limitations," said company lead designer and brand director, Tom Barry-Cotter.
"Due to the company's sales success and subsequent growth of production in recent times, the need surfaced for a more systemized approach to the customisation of boats in order to maintain production efficiencies within the standard model range."
"Maritimo One was established to uphold the brand's identity and reputation for enabling customers to tailor a vessel to their specific needs or environment, whilst taking the potential degree of that customisation to new levels. It is all about one-on-one design and development time with customers and providing a personalised service that results in Maritimo One customers getting a boat that is a one off and unlike another other vessel."
Maritimo sights are set on further expansion within domestic and international markets into 2020, with recent new appointments in New Zealand and North America and further representative appointments in negotiation in all new markets for the brand.
These appointments will coincide with further investment into domestic and international boat show and marketing programs, helping showcase more Maritimo's at exhibitions across the globe.
Maritimo Sales Americas' President, Dave Northrop said Maritimo has been renown for the quality of its engineering and product since the brand's inception, and it is because of brand's like Maritimo that Australian built products are considered among the best in the world within the industry.
He said 'owner friendly systems and engineering' which were simple and reliable for owner operation, family friendly layouts, and the overall functionality of the Maritimo range were significant draw cards for customers in The Americas.
"That combined with quality, seakeeping, economy and range has established the Maritimo brand with heralded status over the North American continent," he said.
"Maritimo's latest models within the M-Series Flybridge Motor Yacht and X-Series Sport Coupe lines have captured the attention of the markets within the Americas with tremendous success, and with knowledge of what is on the horizon we are confident our design and new product developments will launch the brand to even further new heights in the near future," said Corbitt.
Maritimo's product line consists of 11 models across its M-Series Flybridge Motor Yacht, X-Series Sport Coupe and S-Series Sedan Motor Yacht ranges.