Marina del Gargano

Puglia / Italy

Helping to set up, launch and hand over a working marina

CLIENT

Gespo S.r.l., a consortium of local businesses involved in developing the marina

Our client wanted to develop and operate a new marina in the town of Manfredonia in Puglia on the Adriatic coast of Southern Italy. Marina del Gargano has 700 berths from 8m – 60m, a boatyard and over 80 on-site commercial tenants.

OUR TASK

The Marina was due to open in April 2013 and the owners were looking for an experienced marina operator to provide technical, operational and sales assistance during the start-up and opening phases. The marina was part way through construction when our work began. We based one of our senior marina managers at Marina del Gargano to work with the developers and with our Italian Partner, MDL Italia. The challenge was to provide the essential operational input from setting up and resourcing the marina’s sales office to resourcing and training the marina operations team.

OUR APPROACH

We began with detailed market studies and research, including reviewing the designs for the marina and advising on marina equipment specifications. We worked with the whole team to help develop full business plans and budgets, along with all operating systems and procedures necessary for setting up the marina. We provided a full marina operations role leading up to launching and opening the new marina and in the early days of the marina’s trading.

Throughout the process, we provided comprehensive reporting and played a major role in the finalisation of the construction and start up activity, along with selling berths.

THE RESULT

The marina was completed and opened on time with all equipment, service contracts, systems and processes in place. The marina was handed over with a general manager in post, and sales, admin and dock staff working to established procedures. The marina’s first customers’ boats were already on their berths on opening day.

If you’ve got a marina project or development in mind, let’s discuss how we can help.

consultancy@mdlmarinas.com

+44(0)23 8045 7155