As Besenzoni looks to deepen its end-user relationships, MIN sits down with Fiorella Besenzoni to hear about the strategy for customer service, shipyards pulling through sustainable products and changing stern design.
“Honestly, our product is now well known, and we are quite happy about that,” says Fiorella Besenzoni (pictured below) during MIN‘s guided tour of the manufacturing site near Lake Iseo, Lombardy, Italy. “The brand is well known, and we have our good reputation on the market.”
The Besenzoni company’s core business is in gangways. It designs and manufactures standard and custom made products for sail boats, motor yachts and superyachts (under the Unica brand), providing tender launching systems, helm seats, boarding ladders and more –– and the company is part of the Italian consortium: together we boat.
The family-owned business was founded in 1967, and Besenzoni notes: “I’m proud to say we invented the hydraulic gangway in the 1980s.” The company is now offering electric power across its range. “The concept is the same, but it’s different materials.”
Electric innovations take centre stage
And it’s one of the most important developments for Besenzoni over the past five years — sucessfully getting its products into the electric space.
“It’s been a great challenge because using electric power in the marine environment was not easy. Our equipment is quite heavy, sometimes bulky. To move a gangway without hydraulic power could be difficult,” Besenzoni says.
“But now we produce gangways up to 4.5 metres in length, and they are moved by electric power, so it’s great. And we have extended our range of products to the anchor system, to the rooftop and the lifting platform as well.
“There was a lot of study and tests and mistakes. The journey was quite long but we are proud of it.”
Similar to her company, Besenzoni says the wider Italian market is focused on sustainable projects, looking to realise and produce boats with hybrid solutions, or with systems that can be more environmentally friendly.
Shipyards asking for sustainable (electric) products
She says the market is definitely changing. Demand for electric products is growing, which she posits could be driven by shipyards incorporating these solutions, which helps end-customers become comfortable with the new technology.
“I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the shipyards are asking more for [sustainable] help than the final customer,” she notes. “If the final customer finds the solution already on the boat when they buy it, they get used to it.
“If they have to choose between a hydraulic and electric, they’ll stay on the old system – they will choose the hydraulic unit.”
But as shipyards pull though electric systems for installation (“like us, shipyards want to move in that direction”), Besenzoni says “it’s easier for the final client to see that the electric performance is great, it is working as well as the hydraulic one.”
Sterns have seen development changes
Meanwhile changes at the boats’ sterns have created opportunities.
“There’s attention on the stern area of the boat, creating more space and wider beach areas where the people can enjoy and just relax.
“Of course the interior is always very smart and the Italian design is quite well known, but I’m more focused on the exterior and the technology of the boat, than the interior and the design.
“We produce a lot of automatic terraces that can widen the space of the beach area, and different solutions about the lifting platform.”
Customer service and end-user interaction
But, while the company is well known through the shipyards, she says it’s “not so known to the final client.” This means that Besenzoni is embarking on strengthening its direct contact via customer service.
“We are focusing more on the customer service side … it is the area where we want to focus more because it’s very important. It’s the area where we have the direct contact, but with the boat owner. We want to create a stable relationship with them as well, for them to be proud to have one of our products on the boat.”
The company now offers customer service seven days a week, and DHL has a daily pick-up for distribution around the world via 233 service agents.
The post Sustainability, shipyards and sterns: Besenzoni sums-up the Italian market appeared first on Marine Industry News.
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