Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. It's been
Speaker 1: a whirlwind day, a whirlwin week, a whirlwin year already. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about for those of you who are
Speaker 1: just thinking about getting out into the world. Uh. This
Speaker 1: next guest can maybe talked to us a little bit
Speaker 1: about revenge spending on steroids. Um, Carol, have you ordered
Speaker 1: your superiot? I have not, no, neither of I. We're
Speaker 1: talking about Jonathan Beckett. He's CEO of Virgess Yachts. It's
Speaker 1: based in the UK. But Jonathan joins us on the
Speaker 1: phone from New York City today. How are you, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you, and it's great to be
Speaker 1: back in the city. Um. You know, I'm normally here
Speaker 1: about a week a month, and you know, for twenty
Speaker 1: two months I didn't come. So I've been back three
Speaker 1: times in the last two months. So it's great to
Speaker 1: be back. Welcome back. Hey, before we get into what
Speaker 1: you see for two, just give us an update about
Speaker 1: what the industry looked like in one, because it was
Speaker 1: a banner year for the industry. Yeah, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: as we went into COVID, I think everybody was battling
Speaker 1: down the hatches and you know, expecting the worst, planning
Speaker 1: for the worst, and hoping for the best. And you know,
Speaker 1: from September or October and all the way through, you know,
Speaker 1: we we hit record highs and it was it's been
Speaker 1: the most extraordinary period of time for our industry. You know,
Speaker 1: I've talked to people in the in the boat world
Speaker 1: and they have said it has been off the charts
Speaker 1: boats of all sizes and prices of just people in
Speaker 1: the pandemic. And I think it's also the wealth creation,
Speaker 1: certainly in certain substrata, if you will, or strata of
Speaker 1: our of our society. Jeff tell us about who's been buying, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, across the world, you know, and what kind
Speaker 1: of yachts are we talking about? Well in our market,
Speaker 1: you know, it's really across the board, you know, from
Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand, you know, through Russia, Asia, America, Europe.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, this is the first time
Speaker 1: that many of our clients have actually felt vulnerability, you
Speaker 1: really experienced vulnerability before, you know, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of our clients felt bulletproof and very secure
Speaker 1: with with their business and the environment and the economy.
Speaker 1: And for the first time, you know, they were sort
Speaker 1: of almost helpless um and felt very vulnerable. And and
Speaker 1: as you say, there's been a lot of wealth creation,
Speaker 1: and so why put off for five years time or
Speaker 1: ten years time when you know when you could be
Speaker 1: doing it today and enjoying it with your family today.
Speaker 1: And I think that's had a big play in our market. Well,
Speaker 1: what the typical purchase? Is there a typical purchase you
Speaker 1: could kind of lay out for us, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the marine industry across the board
Speaker 1: has done exception well in the last eighteen months. But
Speaker 1: you know, the typical purpose in our market is probably
Speaker 1: an average of around fifty million dollars. And you know
Speaker 1: that that market, you know, there's been a sort of
Speaker 1: feeding frenzy. And prices are not prices are sensible, they're not,
Speaker 1: they're not inflated, but you know they're good prices. There's
Speaker 1: no there are no cheap boats around. What does what
Speaker 1: does itty million dollar yacht look like? What does it
Speaker 1: catch you? What does fifty million dollar yacht look like?
Speaker 1: It's probably you know, it's it's around sixty two hundred feet.
Speaker 1: We will accommodate twelve to fourteen guests, have a crew
Speaker 1: of sixteen to eighteen and you know transatlantic range. It's
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a world it's a world cruiser
Speaker 1: and full of luxury. But our market goes goes from
Speaker 1: ten million dollars up to you know, six hundred million dollars,
Speaker 1: you know, the very heavy heights. It's it's an absolute
Speaker 1: extraordinary world. Yeah, and it's a lot of motor yacts.
Speaker 1: But I know you have sailing, which is my my
Speaker 1: favorite always and it's time to look at who's buying though,
Speaker 1: is it? You know we used to say on some
Speaker 1: of this stuff and some of this really high end
Speaker 1: luxury um products, if you will, that it was a
Speaker 1: lot of tech you know, entrepreneurs and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth. Who's doing the buying though? Why you know
Speaker 1: that our market is you know, the American market is
Speaker 1: very very important to us. It's probably thirty of the
Speaker 1: world market, um, and there are certainly a lot of
Speaker 1: a number of tech you know, young tech entrepreneurs, but
Speaker 1: you know, the market is very traditional and you know,
Speaker 1: people in you know, in finance in property, in you know,
Speaker 1: car dealerships, manufacturing. You know, a lot of our clients
Speaker 1: are involved in businesses. Um that that produced a lot
Speaker 1: of units that everybody, everybody wants and you know it
Speaker 1: could be talking about cardboard boxes or shampoo or toothpaste
Speaker 1: or yeah, we all use a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: and that produces makes a lot of people wealthy to
Speaker 1: you also do a lot of chartering. Tell us about
Speaker 1: that side of the business as well well. Char chartering
Speaker 1: was very difficult in obviously UM and a lot of
Speaker 1: charters were either canceled or or pushed into one was
Speaker 1: was almost our best year ever. It wasn't quite our
Speaker 1: best year ever, but was our best year. And I
Speaker 1: think two will be a record year for yacht charter
Speaker 1: and already, you know, we've got limited availability in the
Speaker 1: peak season, so um, you know, everybody wants to go
Speaker 1: out and enjoy themselves and they have the finance to
Speaker 1: do it, and you know, it should be a very
Speaker 1: good year for the charter business. And anyone listening who
Speaker 1: wants to chart for a yacht um, you know in yeah,
Speaker 1: throughout the year, then then it's time to book up
Speaker 1: because there is a shortage there's going to be a
Speaker 1: shortage of supply. Are you concerned all about market volatility
Speaker 1: in the way that it may affect a confidence of
Speaker 1: somebody who's about to show out fifty million dollars or
Speaker 1: more for for a yard? And absolutely, And you know,
Speaker 1: our market relies on stable world economy and stable political environment.
Speaker 1: And you know, anything that is a is a jitter.
Speaker 1: People sort of pull back and they're nervous about it.
Speaker 1: But right now I think we are. You know, the
Speaker 1: markets have been down the last couple of days, but
Speaker 1: you know, not dramatically down, and nobody's pulled the deal
Speaker 1: because of the market volatility just quickly not okay, all right?
Speaker 1: Well yeah, well I'm just gonna say, go through your
Speaker 1: website's like going on and any vacation, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to the charter side, come back soon, um, Joff,
Speaker 1: come back to New York and hopefully we can have
Speaker 1: you in studio next time. That's Joff back at the
Speaker 1: CEO of Burgess Yachts based in the UK and New York. Carol.
Speaker 1: If you have to click on the price and like
Speaker 1: ask how much it is, remember you can't afford it, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know, our mother's right Our parents have both said
Speaker 1: that if you have to ask, you can afford it.