Production series should begin in the coming weeks.

The Gladiator 428 will be the smallest boat produced by Canados in the last 30 years, but surely one that will grab massive attention. 

Explanations from Michel Karsenti, Executive Chairman at Canados, to Yachting Art Magazine: “Canados has been known for decades as a custom builder. When I look at the rest of the Italian yachting industry, and even more in our market segment, I don’t see any other shipyard having a 360-degree integration of the production, including full manufacturing capabilities of any sorts of interiors. It might sound incredible in today’s market, but we are still building our boats, from 76’ and up, just like mega-yachts, except that, where all the builders are cutting cost by subcontracting as much as they can, we carefully craft bespoke yachts entirely made by hand for very specific and demanding clients.

Thus, we intend to keep a very limited production for our larger boats as we feel much better having more demand than we can offer. As a result, every contract is dealt direct and we do not have a dealership network as our clients are willing to discuss every detail directly with the shipyard building their boat. We deal will a number of brokers around the world that drive us clients who can’t find what they are looking for with typical production builders. Therefore, it was difficult to integrate a project such as the 428 Gladiator in the typical Canados structure as both the industrial and commercial philosophies of this model are different from the rest of the Canados range. The Gladiator line will be distributed by a global limited network of seven to eight dealers. This forced us to organize a whole different business unit fully dedicated to the Gladiator.”

A dedicated business unit at Canados shipyard 
 
The Canados Gladiator 428 production unit is headed by Gianluca Fanelli, a veteran production manager that have been with Canados for twelve years before becoming the Aston Parker production manager.

Fanelli gladly returned to the Canados family last July to head the Gladiator 428 program. Fanelli is an extremely valuable asset as he knows the Canados custom building capacities better than anyone, but he is also extremely experienced in implementing industrial processes in series production.
 
The mission he has been assigned with can be synthesized in different 7 parameters:

• Build the best and most luxurious day-cruiser available on the market.
• Install in the heart of the Rome based Canados main factory a dedicated production unit for the 428 Gladiator.
• Be ready to produce 6 to 8 boats for 2017 and 20+ boats for 2018 onwards.
• Deliver hassle free boats by using only the best components and materials available today. The 428 Gladiator program saw no investment limitation in the quality of the the tooling such as molds as well as engineering and processes.
• Assure clients and Gladiator dealers of a unique experience by always delivering turnkey boats on time.
• Use the Canados exceptional know-how and resources available notably from the technical office and the interior wood-shop.
• Deliver the world’s best and most achieved boat in the category.

The target market ot the Canados 428 Gladiator 

The Canados 428 Gladiator has been developed for discerning clients only looking for the best money can buy, thus remaining price-competitive.
 
The target client profile has been precisely analyzed to make sure the Gladiator 428 will be in high demand:

• Geographically, the bulk of them are using their boats in trendy places such as Sardinia, Cote d’Azur, Corsica, Spanish Islands, South Florida, Caribbean, Greece, Croatia, Italian Ligurian coast, Hamptons, Bahamas, Mexico, Dubai…
• Most clients are business people with very limited free time, thus willing to own a day boat they can use on short notice, just for a day or a week-end with very low or no maintenance needs.
• Lots of clients are former larger yacht owners who stepped down from ownership being tired of the process and heavy crew management. They want to go boating in style and luxury but on their own.
• Superyacht owners willing to have a luxury day boat, chase boat or tow tender to be able to escape with no crew.

The list of dealers for 2018 will be released during the Cannes Yachting Festival 2017 with points of sale and service in Sardinia, South of France, The Balearics and Miami.