“My passion, my work.” Interview with Giovanni Pomati, CEO of Nautor Swan

At 17 he goes to Newport to watch the America’s Cup for pure enthusiast’s pleasure. At 40 he finally gets his first boat. But never did he think he would make his passion a job. Giovanni Pomati, CEO of Nautor Swan, talks about himself: from his beginnings as a sailor, from the years he spent researching the right Swan, to get to the challenge he faced when, after a 30-year career at Pirelli, he decided to put himself himself by relaunching an ‘icon of sailing. And of future strategies, after Nautor has joined the Sanlorenzo Group.

Our interview with Giovanni Pomati, CEO of Nautor Swan

Nautor Swan today is not only an icon of sailing, but also a true industrial reality, with well-separated product lines: the monotypes, whose “pearl” is the new ClubSwan 28, the performance/cruiser line, from 51 to 80 feet, and the Swan Maxi, from 88 to 128 feet. And a turnover of more than 100 million, more than doubled in the last seven years, under the leadership of CEO Giovanni Pomati.

But who is the 61-year-old Milanese Pomati-an engineer on paper and in the soul-a very long managerial and industrial experience at the top of Pirelli, a key player in the rebirth of the Italian shipyard based in Finland (which in August 2024 joined the Sanlorenzo group and will also build aluminum sailing megayachts in Italy)? A great sailing enthusiast, a long-time subscriber to the Giornale della Vela. He took advantage of this, in his rare moments in Milan, to visit us at the editorial office. With him we chatted about the past (and not only about Swan!), present, future and his recipes to consolidate, even more, the brand of “Swans” in the world. With the help, now, of a “giant” like Sanlorenzo.

Giovanni, but how long have you been sailing?

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My oldest children, Francis who is 31 and Bianca who is 29, came by boat barely walking. Peter, who is 23, was not there yet — okay. That’s at least 28 years.

Are your children as passionate as you are?

Very much. Just like me, they love the pleasure of sailing. Cruising, racing–without fanaticism. They were lucky enough to have the boat right from the start, they…

Don’t you?

No, but from an early age I was attracted to boats. When I used to go on vacation with my parents to Porto Rotondo, Santa Margherita, I would look at other people’s: especially Swan and Alpa: the former because Swan is Swan, Alpa because my dad was friends with Adolfo Soldini(textile entrepreneur, director of Alpa and father of Giovanni the famous sailor, ed.) and an uncle of mine, Vincenzo Mazzucchelli, had an Alpa. I was always attracted to nature, the mountains (I love skiing), the sea. But I was not a beach person. I was interested in the object with which to go on the sea — and sailing, as sailing. Just think that when I was 17, alone, I went to Newport to see the America’s Cup. Just for pleasure, it wasn’t like I knew anyone! Then, as an adult, I went to watch a Route du Rhum start, and to Alicante for the Volvo Ocean Race.

Anyway-as soon as I could I started doing a little bit of racing. I participated in several editions of the Tigullio Winter Championship, then on J/24s and aboard a three-quarter tonner, I was a lot on Codecasa’s Easy Perfection. But without being an “incagnito.” Sometimes then in the summer there was a friend whose father would leave his boat and we would go cruising….

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When did you decide you wanted your own boat?

Around the age of 40, with my wife Elena we rented a Jeanneau cruising boat for a couple of years… Then, as often happens, there are key figures who “initiate” you… A couple of friends who had the boat and my brother-in-law Andrea Costa, a shipowner and strong sailor, introduced me to Gigi Servidati(now chairman of Cantiere Del Pardo, ed.), who sold me a used Dufour 40. I had sailed a lot before owning my own boat, between cruises, regattas and crossings. I knew how to do everything except get in and out of port and berth.

When I went to take the Dufour to Lavagna, I will remember it as long as I live, I spent Sundays and Sundays together with a sailor who taught me how to get in and out of the harbor! We kept the Dufour for two, three years. Then I got the only new boat I had in my life. A Grand Soleil 45. I ordered it together with my brother-in-law: he opted for the GS 50. But with a deal: since Andrea had a dream of getting, sooner or later, a Swan, when he succeeded I would buy his 50. It was 2007, he participated in the ARC(the non-competitive Atlantic regatta for cruising boats, from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, ed.) winning in his category, with Ciccio Manzoli on board: the boat was prepared to perfection. “I can’t wait to buy it for you!“, I told my brother-in-law. When the time came, I sold the 45, but he could not find the Swan. Deals are deals though, I bought his 50 and he was left without a boat. It was a wonderful time because Andrea was always on board with me-I learned so much from him.

Did your brother-in-law then find the Swan?

Today he is proud owner of the Swan 60 Red Swan, he keeps it in Santa Margherita, everyone knows it there… It stands out, because of its lines and its color. Red, indeed.

Back to us.

With the GS 50, for a good ten years, we cruised all over the Mediterranean. We kept the boat in Valencia two years, two more in Barcelona… because of “the fault” of the children. I followed them. First we were in Porto Lotti, in La Spezia, because there was a swimming pool and tennis for them near there. Then they grew up and wanted to have summers in Formentera, so we followed them by keeping the boat in Spain. “So we use it ourselves,” we said to each other with Elena. Never once used the boat in Spain(laughs, ed.). But it served me very well, this experience.

In Spain, I understood how professional boat management worked, the “service,” what we would later focus on so much in Nautor Swan that it was one of the brand’s relaunching points. In Italy it didn’t exist … And to us boat owners, in a way, this world of craftsmen/friends was fine, because you spent less. But you had to put in long lead times, work done with questionable quality standards, labor that could not be found in the summer…

The importance of offering service. You learned it on your own skin.

True. Let’s go back to boating vacations. I had the GS 50, but the Swan “woodworm” as I told you I had had since childhood. The opportunity presented itself three years ago.

Subsequent to your joining Nautor Swan as CEO (2018)…

Much later. I went to negotiate Swan sales with the GS moored 200 meters away so that it would not be seen(laughs, ed.): everyone knew about it, and for Leonardo Ferragamo(Nautor Swan president, ed.) it was not a problem. Anyway: I was about to sell the GS 50 and began the search for a Swan. I focused on a beautiful 56′, Frers design, from the early 2000s. I consulted my family-who waged war on me. ” But you are crazy! All those winches…the mast without the quartered spreaders…no way! “. Then I stuck to my guns: “I’m not selling my 50-footer anymore and good night to the bucket!“…

Your family put a lot of nose to the grindstone, even from a technical standpoint–you can tell you’ve sailed a lot!

Yes. This also helps me a lot in my profession, to intercept the tastes of boaters today. We are all enthusiasts and we know boats, but we are not that “deep” from a technical point of view. Just like the majority of people who buy a cruising boat. However, we still kept the boat. I, however, wanted a Swan, no matter what. But I had a darn budget that I had set for myself that I didn’t want to break. I was always reading the Sailing Newspaper, especially the last pages, the classifieds pages, looking for the boat for me. I had even gone to see a 53 in Newport, but the deal had fallen through….

Then, finally.

I was in Pietarsaari, Finland(the home of the Nautor Swan shipyard, ed.), in July on one of those days that never end. I finally see her. The Swan 54. The boat I had first noticed when I joined Nautor as an employee. “This is right.” And even those around me, Lorenzo Bortolotti(managing director of Nautor Swan Brokerage, ed.) in primis, suggest it to me. In fact, it was convenient, fast, easy to manage. Within a month I had it. I had a wonderful summer, me with my Swan, and my children still sailing on the GS50. We found ourselves in Caprera, with the two boats side by side, making the “move” from one to the other, before selling the 50 to some friends of mine from college.

You are a man of connections. Family, university…

Yes, but they are bonds mostly built on passions. When, after 30 years at Pirelli(first as head of operations, i.e., industrial director, then as general manager, ed.), I moved to Nautor Swan, I didn’t bring any “heads” with me. Question of fairness.

And today, what’s it like on a Swan?

Magnificently. Today my children are not very happy–they take it because I trust them less with this boat (although sometimes we get together and it’s great to sail with them). Since in Nautor Swan we don’t sell boats, but experience, and experience is yes to use in cruising the boat, but also to manage it, maintain it, refit it, rent it, I use our Swan 54 a lot as a lab boat. Have we focused so much on service? Well, I want to be the first customer.

You said rent it out. Do you also do occasional renting?

Yes, it is a formula that we promote. It’s to reduce costs, especially if you use the boat very little. We rent it with a lot of captain.

Your boat life is helping you a lot in your work.

So much. Before, when I worked at Pirelli, sailing was just a passion. Now it is a way (also) to field test the product I sell and to know the air in the market.

Speaking of Pirelli, why did you leave after 30 years?

After being in China for a few years, I had been offered to move to Brazil. With my youngest son of college age, my wife wanting to return to Milan, I chose family.

How did you land in Swan?

Ferragamo sought me out; he had been given my name by someone who had studied the company well and saw critical industrial issues. There was a need to relaunch the brand and meet production costs. At first I didn’t think I would accept. I was coming from a publicly traded automotive giant; the marine market is tiny by comparison. Plus, I am an engineer. I know that turning passion into work is dangerous… But then the challenge “intrigued” me. From the shock of joining a much smaller company I quickly recovered, because my parents were both small businessmen, what it meant to run a business of this size I saw every day at home. Instead, what I, who had traveled the world as a multinational company man, struggled with was the complexity of the product.

How do you mean?

I always say. Making pizzas is one thing. Making boats is a whole other story. And let alone making them at a shipyard in Finland, 2,500 kilometers from his Italian headquarters. It wasn’t going to be an easy challenge.

There were positive starting points, however.

The first parallels I make with my old job. Nautor Swan, like Pirelli, is also a strong brand. Then, they are both international brands, stronger abroad than in Italy. Nautor has its arms in Finland and its head in Italy, but it is definitely a global brand. Last but not least, the theme of performance research, common to both brands.

What about the first difficulties?

The loss-making accounts when I arrived, despite the fact that we were in the luxury world (to me this was inconceivable!) and, I repeat myself, the complexity of the product, made even more complex by the very little engineering behind it. With the various designers I dealt with, we used to tell each other that if you build an airplane with the level of engineering that’s on a sailboat, the airplane won’t rise. On the other hand, if you decide to build a boat with the level of engineering that’s on an airplane, you don’t build it. They make hundreds of Jumbos and Airbuses–of a boat model they make 20, 30. The game is not worth the candle.

So what?

So you have to bring engineering on the components, taking advantage of components that are not made specifically for the object you’re building, they’re also for something else and so they’ve already been engineered to the best of their ability. At Pirelli I was running 25 factories, 25,000 people in every part of the world-Romania, China, Mexico… More difficult than that, I told myself, there is nothing…

Running a 300-person factory in Pietarsaari can be more difficult(laughs, ed.): there is much less flexibility in Finland, and the space you leave for inefficiencies in a small company causes more harm than in a large company. One factory in 25 doesn’t go? You shut it down. But if you get a piece of a department in one factory, you shut down everything.

However, when I arrived Leonardo, who had been in for 20 years, had already segmented the production by dividing between cruising and racing boats (today you can’t really make “all-round” boats…), and bet – a wise choice – on monotypy (the ClubSwans, class events, the helmsman-owner rule…), I pushed hard on the service theme: the after-sale is crucial to not lose customers.

In brief, tell us about your first seven years in Nautor Swan.

The first year was great. Probably also because of those who were there before me, we sold a lot of boats. Then Covid came along, and having a full order book got us through the period without any problems. The two lockdowns I spent in Finland, I had the opportunity to learn more about the local reality and the Scandinavian way of working. In 2021-2022 boating experienced a golden moment, then orders slowed down. We threw ourselves firmly into Maxi boats, a market that works very well and is the predominant part of sales. Nautor Swan in recent years has grown a lot.

But if the business grows, more money is needed to keep growing….

Ferragamo realized that his children would not follow him in his passion. It was necessary to sell. I was looking for an industrial partner, we were not interested in investment funds. Cavalier Perotti appeared with the Sanlorenzo group. I got to know him as an industrial reality: they were perfect. On August 2, 2024, after a long and difficult negotiation, Nautor Swan entered Sanlorenzo. Here ends the first episode, which took Nautor from a turnover of 50/60 million in 2018 to over 100 in the last year, thanks to the service and the relaunching of maxis. And the second begins, with some new ideas, with the aluminum megayacht line, a game to be played. In a fluctuating market like boating, the key is to differentiate. As in automotive: who would have thought that Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari would end up building SUVs…

What’s in Nautor Swan’s future?

Meanwhile, I would like to say that Sanlorenzo has left a lot of independence to Nautor. Making sailboats is different from megayachts, Perotti knows that. But there is a lot of exchange between the realities, especially from the point of view of industrial optimization, on which Sanlorenzo is very strong. A new product development department has been created in Milan, where engineering plays even more of a key role. On the “performance/cruiser” range built in Finland – for now – we continue to focus. Indeed, joining Sanlorenzo will allow us to differentiate performance and cruiser even more. As we will move forward with the Maxi line.

We have plans to produce a new, true bluewater around 80 feet, we didn’t have the economic strength before, now we do: it’s designed by Judel/Vrolijk and the new NPD Department which is one of the strategic investments that is bringing newness to our range. And then, Sanlorenzo’s idea that makes great sense to me, the world of aluminum sailing megayachts. The first designer involved is Malcolm McKeon. I’ve been to the Bucket Regatta in the Caribbean aboard these boats and the market is there… Finally, we’re going to continue to push so much on service, on the world of rendezvous and sailing events that are not necessarily competitive. it’s critical, for us, that people enjoy and use Swans. it’s a way to bring more customers into our world. The way to grow more.

Interview by Eugenio Ruocco and Luca Oriani