Grabau International Italia – Offering a “door to the world”

The latest issue of the Italian Il Giornale della Vela magazine features an interview with Grabau International Italia’s Michele Antonini.

If you are looking to sell your boat you must know that, in the world, there is the person who is looking for it. But you have to find the right partner to create the “connection” . This, in a nutshell, is the key to the success of Grabau International, a broker company that in a few years (it was founded in 2015) has gained a leadership position in the world market for the sale of used boats. Present with its offices in England (Lymington and London) and an office in Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Finland and the Balearic Islands (in Palma de Mallorca), in our country it counts on the qualified experience of Michele Antonini, maritime broker and Yacht Broker.

A BREAK IN THE “WALL” OF THE ITALIAN MARKET

“On the one hand”, Michele tells us “we give the possibility to those who sell the boat in Italy to really access a global buyer market. On the other hand, we make it easier for customers from abroad to enter a panorama, the Italian one, which is complex and often perceived as impenetrable.

Not because of too much bureaucracy, but because the buying and selling of used boats is regulated by us in a more advanced way than in other countries. The keys to being competitive are simplicity and maximum efficiency: our job is to make the sale of a boat in the world as easy as possible for both the seller and the new owner.

How do we do it? We are professionals who are totally dedicated to the business: as they like to say in the English offices ‘we pay the bills by selling boats’. We take care of marketing and communication to promote the sale and then we also take care of the negotiation in every aspect, bureaucratic, legal, administrative following the international standards of maritime mediation. And, in our specific case, it makes us the only broker of international standing that really has a foot in Italy “.

THE SECRETS OF SUCCESS

How is the international second-hand market doing? Well, very well indeed: “I enjoyed making a calculation. From January to July, Grabau International sold 300 linear meters of boats. For Grabau International, 2020 was an excellent year and 2021 promises to be even better. The pandemic has given potential owners a shock: many have understood that you only live once, and that the boat is the right way to realize their life plans”.

Another of the “secrets” of Grabau International is the selection of used boats able to offer: “We only deal with boats that we have been able to scrupulously evaluate . Our core business is between 10 and 30 meters in length (for private owners, only a small percentage is dedicated to charter): even the yards we deal with are recognized excellences. Baltic, Vismara, Sweden, Hylas Yachts, Italia Yachts, Brenta and Ocean Explorer Catamarans (a new shipyard that builds high-end catamarans in Finland), to name a few: the age of the boat doesn’t matter.

We sell many Swan Sparkman & Stephens from the 70s, or the Baltic designed by Doug Peterson in the early 80s and at the same time we negotiate the sale of the latest generation carbon performance cruiser. I repeat, in every part of the world. Out of ten people who buy through Grabau International, only one is Italian. Just think that recently, for example, an owner came from Japan to buy a boat he fell in love with”.

Are you convinced that your boat is ‘worth’, but you can’t sell it, after entrusting exclusives to brokers, spending money on online and social ads? Maybe you are not offering it to the right market. And maybe there is a Japanese buyer, on the other side of the world, willing to get on a plane to come and buy it: just rely on a serious, widespread and complete service like that offered by Grabau International.

Reproduced and translated from Il Giornale della Vela.