Alberto Osculati heads the family-owned Osculati Group, one of Europe's leading distributors of yachting equipment. He talks to BoatIndustry about the company's history, its positioning and its vision of market evolution.
Can you tell us a few dates and figures about the history of Osculati?
The family business was launched in 1958. It grew out of my grandfather's sporting experience, with several Italian and one European motorboat championships on lakes and rivers. He opened the first accessories store in Milan, which my father then expanded. Today, it's us, the children, who have taken over. Management is based on family values, which means that, commercially, there's no desire to grow for the sake of growing. Our growth has always been purely organic. Today, we can say that we have the strongest organic growth in Europe, with sales of ?115 million in 95 countries.
What is the sales organization?
When we arrive in a new market, we work with agents to be more agile. For better-known markets, we use salaried staff. Today, there are more and more employees. For France, we currently have 4 sales people and a back office support person. In all, Osculati has around 160 employees, 25 agents and 50 to 70 subcontractors for logistics.
Our great strength is logistics. The 40 M? of stock we keep in store is a real difference compared to the competition. This was very significant during Covid. If we had been owned by an investment fund, we would have been considered overstocked.
How is your product offering constructed?
On the one hand, we have the distribution offer and, on the other, the Osculati product offer. Of these, a third are simply Osculati-branded products, while 40% are designed by Osculati and manufactured by subcontracting partners. The remaining 20% are both designed and produced in-house at Segrate. There are 4 full-time staff in the Osculati design office.
In general, people don't come for a product alone. Our product is our catalog, a bit like Decathlon. You know you'll find what you need, with good value for money and available products.
What are Osculati's main markets?
The original equipment business accounts for slightly more than half of sales. Geographically, Italy is our No. 1 market, followed by France and Germany almost equally. Next come countries like the UK and Poland. Outside Europe, we find Scandinavia, Ukraine, Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East.
How do you see the market situation and future trends?
We're a bit like riding a roller coaster blindfolded. We don't know what the incline will be. The 2022-2023 nautical year from September to August was identical to 2021-2022, with the drop in the after-market offset by an increase in shipyards. Over the fiscal year, we should see a drop of 2-3%.
In this context, we have to be very careful about what we buy. We don't increase our prices across the board, and make a point of passing on decreases when we can. Updates are carefully studied, and in the last one, 80% of references were down, while 20% were up.
There were a lot of sales in 2021-22, so it's normal for there to be a pause. Customers are paying more attention. In 2023-24 we plan to increase investment in technology and management to better manage pre-orders and just-in-time deliveries. Our hangar is an extension of the customer's.
How do you see the market offering evolving over the next few years?
There's always more comfort. Our core market is between 10 and 15 meters, but we equip boats from 70 cm to 70 meters! The trend is to have everything as it is on the big boats.
The other point is sustainability. I hope that the market will become increasingly sensitive to the impact of boats on the environment.
