INTERVIEW WITH LEONARDO FERRAGAMO.

You sail with yachts of Nautor’s Swan yourself. How does the experience differ from sailing with other yachts?

A Swan represents a guarantee of timeless excellence, it embodies a perfect union of style, comfort and performance. Nautor’s Swan has become an important brand and must consider the entire lifespan of their product, ensuring excellent service in terms of customer care but also creating advantages and privileges to owners, and providing more and more opportunities for them to enjoy their yachts. For example with the Rolex Swan Cup, the one-design ClubSwan 50, Swan 42 and Swan 45 World Championships and the many other Swan Challenges. ClubSwan was created specifically with the goal to provide service, care and privileges to our owners, as well as involving them in the world of racing.

The aspect of quality is tremendously important in the luxury segment. How do you define high quality yourself?
The quality word is overrated and all the luxury brands must guarantee high standard from the raw materials to the aftersales service. I believe in general that for iconic quality brands the biggest challenge is always to preserve and nurture the credibility with which they have earned their success. Never take anything for granted, always look for one’s own evolution and improvement, with the goal of surpassing yourself year after year.

How does Nautor’s Swan fulfill this requirement? Which detail would you show a friend to explain the extraordinary quality of the yachts?
The winning elements for me remain consistency, reliability and proven/tested innovation (you cannot test at the expense of a client). Since half a century, Nautor's Swan has designed and built luxurious, high performance yachts in Northern Finland. The value of quality for a Swan is derived from the company's strong heritage, skilled craftsmen and pursuit of excellence in every aspect of the build. Swans have not reached their fame through marketing stunts, but have made their name because of their intrinsic qualities and their extraordinary results, in terms of performance, construction quality and reliability. All this is part of the Finnish culture. The team at Nautor’s Swan has complete control over the quality of each and every single component of the boat and each and every step of the building process. In terms of quality we cannot forget the Nautor’s Swan excellence of service, re-fits and specialised customer care, and its worldwide brokerage division. Over the decades Swan models have covered close to 100 different models and versions (with more to 2000 units delivered), from 36’ to 131’ and almost all of the hulls ever produced by Nautor are still in use today. It is the best demonstration of Nautor’s Swan quality.

Concerning the collaboration between Nautor’s Swan and BMW Individual to build a custom made BMW M760Li: How can such interdisciplinary projects help to test new opportunities of high-end-manufacturing?
The successful partnership between BMW and Nautor’s Swan started long time ago and it gets stronger day by day because we share the same brand values of craftsmanship, performance, best service and attention to details. This custom high profile project is the result of our heritage and skilled ability to conceive a product positioned at the luxury segment which demands the marriage between sophisticated materials and innovative technology without forgetting customization. The BMW Individual M760Li inspired by Nautor's Swan is the perfect example of how two iconic brands maintaining their identity can collaborate adding uplifted customizations (i.e. the super light ClubSwan 50 floorboard technology (European Oak or teak wood combined with carbon-fiber and internal foam) used for the rear floormats and boot of the car).

Concerning quality: In how far have the wishes of the customers in the luxury segment become more sophisticated? What exactly do they wish? How can a company meet those wishes?
I think that on one side the new technologies have changed the timing and level of presentation of new products on the market and on the other side the high-skilled craftsmanship handed down generation by generation has created a sophistication not imaginable in the past. The luxury brands, in this economic free market, have to invest to evolve continuously their positioning and to respect the expectations of the customers. This feeds a virtual circle able to create such a beautiful custom masterpieces in all different sectors.

The wishes of customers in the luxury segment are always a mirror of the current age. In your view: How have the wishes of the customers in the luxury segment changed over the last years? And what does this tell us about the times we live in?

We live in a “time to hurry” where we would like to have 48 hours a day and where we are starved of things (products, news, events, innovations, etc.). In such a running world the companies are moving fast too in order to be trendy and contemporary focusing on high level of customization not only tied to the products but also to the delivery. I think customers are getting more and more interested in the services (customizations and fast delivery) and in the experience that a brand can offer taking the quality for granted.

Mr. Ferragamo, thank you very much for your time.