ROTTERDAM – After a year of COVID-19 nastiness, Holland Yachting Group is back with a new website, more members, new leadership, and a renewed ambition to show the world the custom quality of Dutch superyacht builders and their suppliers.
A year ago, the Dutch superyacht lobby left – after 50 years! – the HISWA watersports organization. It was keen to cast its marketing net wider and found a new home within the Netherlands Maritime Technology, the massive trade lobby for the Netherlands’ maritime sector.
The group’s new leader is Eddie Kloosterman. As Division Manager HYG within NMT, he rebuilt the superyacht lobby reeling in 31 members, ordered up a new HYG logo, launched a new website and crafted a marketing strategy to position Dutch superyacht building worldwide.
Shoring up that ambition is the slogan of old that nudges you to “Think Yachts. Think Holland.”
The coronavirus, says Kloosterman, made 2020 a very unusual year. “There were no shows in Monaco and Fort Lauderdale,” he says. “And the METSTRADE show in Amsterdam was also called off.” And yet, for Dutch superyacht builders and their suppliers, 2020 was a banner year. They delivered tens of one-off yachts and enjoyed fat order books.
In reconstituting the Holland Yachting Group within the NMT fold, Kloosterman enrolled 6 superyacht builders (he is working on several more), 16 equipment makers, a naval architect, a handful of yacht interior builders, 2 engineering firms and a lifestyle company.
Kloosterman says joining the NMT has been a boon. NMT boasts ample experience in staging trade missions. Its 437 members have tons of expertise in the maritime sectors.
“They are a powerful resource for Dutch yacht builders in very specialist areas such as emission-free propulsion, for instance,” says Kloosterman. “It’s our mission to strengthen the competitive position of the Dutch yachting industry in the global market.”
Holland Yachting Group’s members:
- 6 builders: Oceanco, Contest Yachts, Royal Huisman, Moonen Yachts, Heesen Yachts, Feadship
- 1 naval architecture studio: Van Oossanen
- 16 equipment builders: Cramm Yachting, Emigreen, Esthec, HUG Engineering, Hydromar Marine Equipment, MarQuip, Naiad Dynamics Holland, Newthex Ned, Pon Power, RH Marine, Radio Holland, Radio Zeeland DMP, Rondal, Royal Deck, SIP Marine and VABO Composites.
- 5 interiors builders: Alukwa, Kuiper Holland, Lanka Marble, Struik & Hamerslag, Zijlstra International Decoration.
- 2 engineering companies: Alewijnse Marine, STI Engineering
- 1 lifestyle company: Luxury Hospitality Management
