Antonello Caracciolo, a 53-year-old entrepreneur based in Milan, has devoted his passion to an historic brand of the Italian nautical industry, Kardis Marine.
Since his very young age, he has been passionate about life at sea. He bought his rib boat with his first savings as a 19-year-old student. Ribs perfectly matched his idea on navigation, which should be agile and easy, allowing for ever-expanding horizons.
At the age of 22, he was already the owner of a small company, Prevenzione Italia. Thanks to his activity, he got in touch with various boat builders and he started thinking of becoming an entrepreneur in the nautical sector.
The first two models produced, Fox 540 and Tatanka 690, successfully met the market, and the production increased to count 8 models in total. Since last September, 96 boats have already been sold.
Caracciolo took over the brand Kardis in 2014, when the sector was suffering difficult times. He chose this particular brand specialising in rib boats because of its high quality, reliable and beautiful products. He contributed to its successful relaunch in collaboration with Kardis’ founder Andrea Cardinetti.
In order to best respond to the crises, he travelled all across Italy to investigate how the sector had changed in the last years. He understood that his chance to success laid on a few simple ideas: to keep quality at high levels, to have full control of the products with in-house production of all components, and to keep an handicraft approach to the creation of boats.
Kardis boats are for sea-lovers wishing to fully experience life at sea, onboard a reliable boat allowing for long cruises.
After selling 96 rib boats in the past year, Kardis Marine is working on the design of a new production line which will be presented at the upcoming boat shows, starting from the 2017 Cannes Yachting Festival.
Even thought the majority of models sold are 6-metre boats, the brand’s flagship, 12,50, is seeing a growing demand. Kardis Marine seized the challenge of creating larger boats of more than 12 metres in length. The new line will in fact include a 15-metre model to be presented next year.
Kardis Marine, already counting 29 employees charged of the production, has recently acquired a 25,000 sqm area for larger facilities where to build workboats, fishing boats, tenders.
