Angelo Gobbi, President of Absolute, head of the company since 2006.
Q: You have had a long experience in the boating industry. When did it start?
A: Yes, I can say it started when I was a child… I always had a passion for the art of building. I started making models of tractor with trailers and various agricultural tools from a young age. It was a game I would play with my friends. Then, at the age of 15, I was fascinated by the first river boats and motorboats that sailed on the Po river. We could see boats of 9 to 20 feet from the embankment – our ‘beach’. We would look at them in awe. I instantly fell in love with them and tried to build a sheet metal boat with a Vespa engine. The result was not impressive, but it was enough to fuel my desire to build an actual motorboat. I built my first motorboat as soon as I had the opportunity, when I was 20.
Q: Your passion continued when you founded the Cantieri Nautici Gobbi at the age of 24.
A: At that time, in 1963, boating was in its infancy. Fibreglass was a relatively new building material and was still viewed with some distrust by people who wanted to buy a boat. But I believed in it. In 1967 I founded my first shipyard in the province of Milan, using fibreglass to build our first 13 to 19ft boats, with outboard motors. I literally started from scratch, in a time when the competition was extremely high.
There were several motorboat races on the river Po, with both racing and standard boats. They were truly spectacular and attracted crowds of onlookers from all over Italy. The races on the Po river in Piacenza were part of the Italian inboard motorboat championships. Together with the historic Pavia-Venice race, they were popular and engaging, as they featured the best motorboat pilots of the time.
Back then, there were no manufacturers of boat accessories or furnishings in or around Piacenza, so most of the fittings for our boats had to be made in our own shipyard. We would also partner with local companies that made steel accessories, electrical systems, padding and other spare parts for the boating industry, which also helped them grow considerably. The shipyard soon experienced significant growth, which allowed me to open another, much larger shipyard in the province of Piacenza in 1970, suitable for building cabin and FLY boats measuring over 52 feet.
From 1967 to 2002, I founded and managed several businesses in the boating industry, including a successful shipyard for sailing boats in the 1980s. Between 1967 and 2002 there were various crises in the industry, due to the international financial situation as well as to national factors and certain policies unfavourable to the boat market. Despite this, with perseverance and determination – mine and of many partners who followed and supported me along the way – I have always managed to overcome the crises and to grow as a company, renewing myself and renewing our boats. For each boat we designed, I have always pursued absolute quality and functionality, and focused on boat owners and how they would ‘go to sea’, so we could fully understand and meet their actual needs.
In 2002 I decided to retire from the business and sell Cantieri Nautici Gobbi shipyard to a prestigious boat building group.
In 2006 Marcello Bè and Sergio Maggi, my former partners, who had founded the Absolute shipyard with a certain degree of success in 2002, asked me to join their team. I was flattered and happy to accept. Today I am immensely proud to be at the helm and to be President of a company like Absolute.
Q: What is special about Absolute? Tell us about your adventure at Absolute.
A: First, I believe that Absolute has a unique history and growth journey.
Absolute was founded in 2002 and the first boat it introduced to the market measured just 21 feet. We won recognition shortly after in 2004, when our Absolute45 was awarded best boat of the year at the Cannes Boat Show. Boat owners, industry experts and competitors were visibly becoming more and more interested in our boats.
In Absolute, every boat is created entirely in-house, from the very first decision to create a new model. This is what excites me the most, perhaps because it has always been my passion, or because we have a team of over twenty people, including architects, engineers and designers, who are all young and eager to create innovative boats.
From 2006 to 2008, we built the new Absolute shipyard in our current location, over a 48,000 square meter area, with cutting-edge systems and facilities designed to ensure both environmental protection and carefully organised manufacturing processes. In those years, we would only make open boats, ranging from 39 to 70 feet, with open and closed hard tops.
Unfortunately, when we opened the shipyard in 2008, there was a global financial crisis that hit all industries. At Absolute, however, we did not lose heart. Although we were experiencing a decline in turnover, like all international shipyards, we continued to invest and to make new boat models, as the market trend was changing dramatically at the time.
We created a FLY range that stood out from our competitors’ boats. In a short time, it allowed us to recover the turnover volumes of 2008 and to even exceed them in the years that followed.
In 2015, we had to expand our production capacity as customer requests were constantly increasing. So, we also created the Navetta range, which we believe to stand out from the competition for its unique style and habitability.
We are now creating a new range of FLY boats, which we will start to reveal in 2021; this too will differ from the competition in style and on-board living space.
Last, and perhaps most importantly, I think Absolute is special for its team. At Absolute, I instantly sensed the same enthusiasm that reigned when the boating industry was in its early stages. I felt reinvigorated. There have always been high levels of collaboration, enthusiasm and passion, as well as great skills, both among the founders and the shareholders who joined later. Each member of the management team has a specific role, and each of them holds their position with determination, innovative spirit and a desire to achieve constant improvement.
Q: At Absolute, you have surrounded yourself with collaborators and friends who have been in the industry for a long time. How important is it to create the right team?
A: It is incredibly important. As I said, Absolute mainly owes its success to the team of its Board of Directors, who spend many hours in the shipyard, practically all day, and who are well experienced in the industry, in both design and manufacturing. Everyone directs a different work group and oversees a different activity within the company. In this way, decisions are fast and shared, and every activity is carefully monitored. In 2008 this team of partners, which I would call a family team, made sure that Absolute would be able to renew itself quickly enough to ensure continuous growth over the years. They did so with great determination, energy, innovation and market intuition, despite having been in business for just a few years. In addition to the Board of Directors, a real team was soon created across the company, in our offices as well as in production; all the staff in the shipyard are part of a real family team.
Q: Two women are at the helm of Absolute and many others work in every department of the company. What drove your choice?
A: Absolute rewards talent and enthusiasm. In our company, we have both male and female managers. With us, people grow together with the company and every recognition is the result of a shared effort.
Q: What advice would you give to anyone wishing to approach the boating world?
A: I would recommend approaching the boating industry only if you are deeply passionate, highly motivated and dedicated to work. It is an interesting area that can be rewarding if you are prepared and willing to give a lot of time and energy to your job.
