TOP FLIGHT
English summary
Nu mber 11 /120/ November 2019
Jonathan Beckett — CEO
of Burgess — begins work
in the yachting business
at a time when all
business correspondence
was conducted on
paper. We met him in
Monaco during the yacht
show and talked about
importance of being able
to remind about yourself
and respecting
your co-workers.
How is the show ? Is Monaco
Ya c h t S h o w t h e m o s t i m p o r t-
a n t o n e f o r B u rg e s s?
The show is amazing. It is our
single biggest event of the year
and I think we are pleased with
the show. It is just a snapshot of
what we do. Monaco is very im-
portant show for us and it is
also very expensive show for
us. So we have to get some re-
sults. It is a very good fl ag wav-
ing opportunity.
Wa s y a c h t i n g a l w ay s p a r t
o f yo u r l i f e?
I’m on the same job for 38 years,
so it is pretty much the only
job I’ve ever had. I was 23 when
I joined the company, I’ve do-
ne one year of yachting in Ath-
ens before I came to join Nigel
Burgess in Monaco. I picked up
a yachting magazine and I wrote
a lot of letters to all the peo-
ple advertising in the maga-
zine. One of them was Nigel Bur-
gess. I had an interview and he
said: “I’d love to employ you, but
I need to sell at least one more
boat before I employ anybody”.
That time it was just him and
the secretary. And then year lat-
er he wrote me that he is inter-
ested in talking to me again.
S o , h e re m e m b e re d yo u ?
He said “stay in touch”, so I did
stay in touch. Over that year pe-
riod we exchanged letters few
times. There were no e-mails
and mobile phones that time so
everything was pretty much do-
ne by letters.
Today we know Burgess not
only as biggest charter and bro-
kerage company in the world,
but as ambassador of civilized
yachting as well. How and when
it came up to your mind this
business needs to be civilized?
We are very much family
company and we run it as a fam-
ily company. In house we have
a lot of mutual respect for each
other and that’s very import-
ant. As the business developed,
we did more and more deals
working with other brokers. And
I think at this stage we realized
we need some grand rules: what
is fair and what isn’t fair. In my
mind everything we do with our
co-workers or with other bro-
kerage companies should be
fair. That’s always been my mo-
dus operandi.
We have a satuation recent-
ly in the offi ce. We were talking
about co-brokered charter with
the two brokers involved. The
guys came to see me to ask what
I think is the right thing to do.
This business is not about mak-
ing money of one deal, and so
we looked into that case and saw
the way we were going was actu-
ally the wrong way.
D o yo u s t i l l s e e s o m e g a p s
i n t h i s b u s i n e s s?
This business was a hand made
business for a long time, then it
became a cottage industry, then
it became a sort of superyacht
industry. I think as an indus-
try we still drag ourselves to the
start line. Maybe it is 3000 ship-
yards in the world, and the po-
tential is to have 10 000 quite
easily. So, it would be very easy
or not diffi cult to double our
market, but fi rst we need to
make people more aware. Yacht-
ing business used to be just
about going on the water, just
sea, man and ship. Now it is
more about lifestyle, and I think
a lot of people are still afraid
to try the water, they think they
are not going to like being fl oat-
ing. So, a lot of education needs
to be done.
Wo r k i n g a n d c o l l a b o r a t i n g
w i t h a l o t o f y a c h t i n g c o m -
p a n i e s , b i g a n d s m a l l , w h e re
i n t h e w o r l d yo u s e e m o re p o -
t e n t i a l t o d e v e l o p?
America is the single biggest
market, it always has been and
will be for quite a long time to
come. In America alone I think
it is possible to double our busi-
ness over the next seven-eight
years. At the moment we’re fo-
cusing very much on Asia,
around China, and this is grow-
ing very quickly. We have three
offi ces in this region. And we’re
being quite successful of the sail
side in China. That was a sur-
prise for us, we weren’t expect-
ing this to happened. When I say
quickly, I mean fi ve years period,
but we thought it will only take
fi ve years to get real traction.
Chinese people were not
used to sail a lot, but now it is
coming. If 25 years ago someone
said me I will be selling yachts
to Russian I would be very sur-
prised. Now it is obvious Rus-
sians like water. The fi rst one
was Mr. Abramovich who got
himself Leopard 27, then he got
a bigger boat, then bigger boat.
He was a trendsetter, people fol-
lowed him. Exactly the same
thing now happening in China.
There is one big trendsetter.
To d ay w e v i s i t e d M / Y
E xc e l l e n c e by A b e k i n g
& R a s m u s s e n , w h i c h i s b r i l -
liant yacht. Is she the latest
e d i t i o n t o B u rg e s s f l e e t ?
Yes, she is the latest edition to
Burgess charter fl eet.
W h a t d o yo u t h i n k a b o u t
this yacht?
I think she is pretty exceptional.
She is very unusual, people who
like to try new thing are going
to love her. The owner is quite
brave. It is his fourth boat with
the same shipyard. She has only
been in Mediterranean for two
weeks, but we already booked
two winter charters with her.
W h a t y a c h t s B u rg e s s
i s c u r re n t l y b u i l d i n g ?
We are building 107 meter in It-
aly; we’re refi tting 110 meter Ju-
bilee in Germany – it has a new
owner so we’re doing a big re-
furbishment; we have 87 me-
ter at Lürssen; we have 60 meter
at Heesen; we have 60 meter at
Amels and potentially another
64 meter; we got 80 meter
in Turkey.