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