Riviera 2015 Wrap Up

We’re heading for Riviera Yacht Club, the in-house waterfront café and restaurant within the grounds of Australia’s largest boatbuilder. It is is here, on the banks of the mighty Coomera River, that more luxury boats are launched each year than from any other marine precinct and local yard.
I nab one of few spare parking slots remaining on the sprawling 14 hectare site and sign-in for our traditional end-of-year chat. Just weeks before Christmas, Riviera is humming…
There were 25 boats in various stages of being built, 480 people working on site, including 36 apprentices, and a visitors like me dressed in safety goggles and sporting name tags.
At the café, Riviera owner Rodney Longhurst, CEO Wes Moxey and Brand Manager Stephen Milne share in the spoils of what’s been a choppy year for most businesses. But for Riviera, sales have continued apace.
In the calendar year 2015, Riviera has sold 85 boats. This compares favourably with just on 70 boats built in 2014, when Longhurst told us that represented a good business model.
Moxey adds that 2015 was strong with bigger boats and that Riviera is up significantly on dollar-value sales. We heard turnover is more than $110 million, though no-one wants to talk dollars. Delivery is now out to 2017 on some models like the unstoppable Riviera 6000 Sport Yacht.
CEO Wes Moxey says that 50-60 footers are the engine room for Riviera these days, but he’s looking at all segments including smaller boats and, as our chat evolves, he throws up some wild cards. Such things are just concepts, mind you, but Riviera isn’t resting on its laurels in the R&D department.
THE NEW 5400 SPORT YACHT
We’re given an exclusive tour of the new edgy Riviera 5400 Sport Yacht (opening photo), an all-new model with a very sharp line, as a team of boatbuilders buzz about in all directions.
We are shown a CNC-cut 1/10th foam model in the boardroom of the first new Sport Motor Yachts, a 67-footer, with a huge mezzanine seating area, foredeck seating and a very ‘expedition’ looking line.
There is a lot happening and it’s not easy to throw a net over it all. When asked to sum-up 2015 in just one word, Riviera owner Rodney Longhurst struggles. “There are ingredients, there are so many different elements, it’s not just use one word… but I would say ‘steady continued growth.’”
“I’d also use words like ‘successful’ and ‘proud’,” he says. “Every year is special because we’re always improving. The cultural improvements are very exciting. Watching the hunger and engagement with the team is very exciting because they’re the ones…”
EXPORTS ON A ROLL
Riviera says the constant drive to improve is being looked at in every corner of the boat. It is this ‘quest to be the best’ that is driving growth. With 45-55 per cent of all production exported, global markets continue to be responsive. The US has come back in 2015, whereas local markets were stronger in 2014.
Riviera was awarded 2015 Best Export Performance (large exporter) and 2015 Australian Marine Industry Exporter of the Year at the Australian Marine Export and Superyacht Awards. Of course, more exports are anticipated in 2016, when 15 new apprentices arrive and boost their numbers to more than 50 at Riviera.
In 2015, Riviera reported selling 11 boats at Miami boat show in February, its new 77 foot flagship to Dubai (the Middle East has been a big market), a 75 Enclosed to Singapore, where a new dealership was established, and a dozen new Rivieras were “acquired by new owners” at this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) in November.
With seven boats on display, FLIBS was the biggest since 2008, says Moxey. “Every boat on the show was a Volvo IPS. Who would have thought that,” he says, adding that Volvo Penta is now in the process of reducing ownership and servicing costs of its pod drives, much like the auto industry has reduced servicing costs there.
“But we are now in the process of building a Caterpillar-powered 575 SUV with 12.9L 1000hp engines with shaft drives for the Riviera Festival [May 2016],” Moxey says.
Meantime, all Rivieras sold these days have more gear in them as standard and a higher level of customisation than ever before. As evidenced at Fort Lauderdale, Riviera is selling more boats to completely new owners these days. They are attracted not just by the craftsmanship, but also the solid financial situation of the company and its focus of aftersales and service support.
“In 2008, you used to have, in no particular order, Viking, Hatteras, Bertram, Cabo, Ocean, Luhrs, Silverton and Riviera. Now there is just Viking, Hatteras and us,” Moxey says. Evidently, the Riviera SUV model range is now being copied by the likes of Tiara and, locally, Caribbean had a stab at it with the 420 Express.
Riviera has enjoyed recent sales to the Seychelles and Tahiti, where a 43 Flybridge with the new Seakeeper 5 gyro was heading during our visit. We got a ride on that boat just before it was shipped so watch this space…
“They’re coming from all over the world,” chuffs Longhurst, with the recent delivery of a 45 Fly via Riviera’s South Africa dealer, too.
Local boat shows, the Riviera Festival and cruises in company or Experiences as they are called have been big news in 2015, too. There have been chummy fleet voyages from the Whitsundays to Pittwater, Port Lincoln to Perth and more are in store for 2016.
DRIVING SALES
“I believe if we do our job right, our boats will sell. We believe with our events, our customer care, with everything that is part of being Riviera, that people go ‘I want to be a part of that,” Longhurst says, “but we’re always looking for the next bit of specialness.”
At the same time, Riviera concedes its biggest competition is the second-hand market and the many great-value Rivieras listed for sale. There are more than 250 used Rivieras for sale on boatsales and BoatPoint right now, with a 20-year old 33 footer with Cummins engines commanding just $129,000.
“We have to be better and that’s the challenge we give ourselves every day,” says Moxey, adding that two-thirds of all sales in big boats are flybridge models, while the SUV design has been a bit hit in smaller models. Expect some new releases here.
BEST SELLERS
In two years, Riviera has sold 11 of its 445 SUV boats into Adelaide alone! That local dealer has been a big driver of its success, stocking boats and setting them up for local conditions so you can fish off the back. The SUV has been a hit for crossover boating.
The best-selling flybridge model is the 52 Fly, which is up to hull number 42 in just over two years. That includes the updated 525 SUV (review to write-up) and 525 Enclosed Flybridde versions released in 2015. These boats are, in our year of boat testing, the best new Rivieras by our considered reckoning.
The 6000 Sport Yacht has been unstoppable and, surprisingly to this scribe, some of these sports yachts are being used for serious long-range coastal cruising and not just big-city entertaining. The full-beam Presidential cabin is now accounting for half of all 6000SY sales.
WATCH THIS SPACE
Moxey says he is getting hammered for smaller boats from his dealers. Now that he has fixed the Riviera ‘engine room’ for the 50-60 footers we can expect some surprises by way of smaller boats in 2016. One of those boats in underway and will be released at the Riviera Festival in May 2016.
“In almost four years, we haven’t added a lot of new technology. Our focus has been to take the joystick, the IPS and the powered system and make it more robust,” Moxey explains.
“We have separated engine and house batteries, we have redundancy, and we have gone back a step to make things robust.
“The future increase in technology will be with power on demand, iPad integration, remote systems activation…” Moxey says as we wrap up, throwing down the last licks of the coffee.
“We’ve stuck with the IPS and we’re very happy with it. Where you had 1000hp Riviera 56s doing 32 knots on a good day, we’re now getting 35 knots on our 57 with the 900hp engines and the new IPS3s (the first Riv’ installation in 2015),”Moxey says.
Moxey says next year you are going to see another IPS package come through that’s very exciting. You are also going to see new Rivieras — including the 54 Sport Yacht and the all-new 67 Sports Motor Yacht with a whole new level of custom interior — that have accounted for substantial pre-orders.
Meantime, Riviera is back on the ascendancy during a time of stormy waters for many industries and choppy economies at best. Riviera has exported everything from a 36 Sport Yacht to a 77 Flybridge. The new 5400 Sports Yacht will be released in May at the Riviera Festival at the Coomera boat yard, where the Yacht Club and grounds will be an absolute a hive of activity, and there will be  a “big announcement”. Mark down the May 19-22, 2016.