Aicon Yachts was featured in a balarm.it article,

link below:

Since he discovered Taormina in 2000, he has never been detached from it. It was love at first sight with the town, with the Ionian sea on his first visit. Then, when he made trips to the Aeolian Islands by boat, he realized that this archipelago reflects one of the most beautiful areas he has ever seen.

“There, it seems to go by boat like an American one.” 

This is how Marc-Udo Broich , the entrepreneur of Italian origin but transplanted to America, with the passion of Nautica illuminates the Cantiere di Giammoro in the province of Messina again, where the culture of pleasure boats in Sicily was born and is told in Balarm , after creating the Aicon Group.

The 56-year-old man with a thousand resources, as long as they have to do with waves, luxury and imagination, disarms us by saying:

“The only place that makes me happy is being on the sea”.

As President and CEO of “Aicon Yachts” he proposes to build in Messina target boats of “a certain weight”, of the highest range and those with many zeros in their checks and to sell them in America and the Middle East, where business goes to swollen sails. Marc – Udo is the majority shareholder, flanked by his over ten-year partner and friend John Venners, as well as a former customer with whom he shares other companies. 

He recently moved to Milazzo, just to stay close to his Sicilian workers.

Marc is of German citizenship because he has German parents (completely distant from the nautical world), born in Milan from which he left at 16 to go to the United States. As a child, he always went boating in Croatia, in Yugoslavia and, growing up, always in the United States. Here, he enrolled at the University and graduated in International Relations with a doctorate and then he invented this nautical project: he worked for it and so from 2000 to 2007 he covered the role of importer.

Broich went back and forth between Messina and the States for about three years, until there was a twitch in his head, he remembers it perfectly: “It was November 2019 when I decided to stop in Messina, in the house facing the sea in Paradiso of my friend Leopoldo, where I left my suitcase.”

The “business man” has lived for a long time in this villa on the north coast, in support of the unbridled passion for the territory.

The American Who Chose Sicily!

Reflecting on Taormina and its management orientation, it shows that the local people or those who frequent it love pleasure boating and the sea, very different from the users who go to Portofino or Montecarlo (“without being bad” – he says).

“I feel more at ease in these Sicilian places that sometimes seem more unknown – he continues. Clearly, the love grew when I found out that Sicily is a land of nautical workers, a rare pearl as these have not fled compared to other professionals who have been lost in other regions of Italy, such as those who have made the bones by working leather or wood in northern Italy, since the 1950s.”

He has no relatives in Sicily. His relatives live in the United States and he has a niece who lives in Lodi, near Milan. There are many areas that Marc loves such as Agrigento, Trapani and the area of ​​Corleone (where there is one of his producers).

“Sicily is one of the most beautiful places in the world – Broich declares -, the problem is that it is not used in the right way. It could be a gold pit like the Amalfi Coast, Cannes or the French Riviera. The damn bureaucracy ruins everything!”

The road that runs along Capo Peloro, the Ganzirri Lakes and the whole promenade up to the Promenade is one of the most beautiful views in the world. Tourists could be attracted by the beaches, by the views (one different from the other). One could stay on this island in constant admiration. Sicily could split the world because there are no places like these ».

The approach with Aicon occurs because in 2000 Mark – Udo had sold his company and the license that dealt with plastic recycling for the famous brand to Coca Cola since the mid-nineties. Coca Cola had built two factories in Australia and near Naples and later also wanted to buy its patent.

“I was in Genoa at the Boat Show – he recalls -, I saw the Aicon 56 and I was not even part of the sector and I fell in love with it. I asked the Aicon management if I could become a Dealer, importer and manufacturer of the brand for the whole of America.”

He still regrets: “When I realized that the Aicon was insinuating itself in ‘strange situations’ – exclaims Broich (on well-known facts that surfaced in the news many years later) – I left Nautica and I missed it. When Aicon went bankrupt in 2014, for two / three years I looked around to understand how I could take over the company and met the curator. But I had no intention of staying here in Sicily at the time .”

The idea was to start a small boutique, to set up three or four boats by subcontractors because he had a lot of friends who asked him “build me a boat, build me a boat”. The construction site could have been in Viareggio and Fano in the Marche.

By the time he bought the brand and made his rounds in Taormina, he realized that his heart remained here.

“Then I met the professionals who promise you the world and your whole life – he relates amused – and, with phrases like Sicily will help you, you can’t help but join the cause”. He still owns his home in Town Beach. He would like to spend four weeks in Messina and two in the United States.

The heart, the headquarters of Aicon’s production, is Sicily while its Holding is America (in Town Beach) with its chosen market. The Sicilian workers of Aicon are a source of pride and joy for Marc.

There were so many people employed in the old shipyard who could not find work on the island and had to move to northern Italy.

Once the company in Giammoro was opened there, these specialists in the sector were able to return at least 50%; the other half is represented by the new generations who want to learn how to make a career in boating.

The “Made in Sicily” manufacture will be based on a time schedule, from now to 2022, on the Aicon 66 “Vivere” of which the first model was purchased by a New York shipowner and will participate in the Miami and Palm Beach boat shows; the 76 “Vivere” will also be released and a new yacht will be built every year for the next five years to respect the Aicon range for boats between 60 and 100 feet.

A Florida owner has grabbed the next 66 # 12 which is under manpower while a Canadian awaits the # 14 in fiberglass production. To trace the models is one of the most esteemed and requested designers at international level Sergio Cutolo of Hydro Tec, former director of Baglietto. On site, it will produce from fiberglass to interior furniture.

For this reason, there are 75 employment units: 50 direct ones, plus an induced group of over 25. Aicon Group which gives the opportunity to create on the one hand sumptuous and customized boats (even considering the expenditure of millions), it has expanded with Aicon Interiors (already recruited seven workers who will increase to ten) which aims to build interiors for a chain of perfumeries in the context of shopping centers especially in northern Italy such as Milan and Bergamo, for the homes of wealthy individuals and large companies.

“The idea of ​​furniture – points out the entrepreneur – was born because customers, especially architects, asked if we made furniture. Since we have cabinetmakers in our ranks, we are taking steps to bring these pieces to the luxury market as well. Let’s not forget that when Aicon was founded in the nineties it served to build five-star hotels between Messina and its surroundings. The future will also be that of exporting skills and engineering abroad.

We use two warehouses, one of which is dedicated to Aicon Interiors of about 1000 square meters. From an American conception, we have the engineering structure that collaborates with our Style Center (five-six designers) and the commercial one: each with its turnover .”

Aicon of the past was uprooted by a judicial tornado but now it has nothing to do with the past (old family, old story). Aicon Group financed itself “at home” and received no support from either political forces or banks. His brand can very well relax or praise on a pedestal for the fact of being the only Sicilian that is appreciated on all five continents.

The agreement with Aicon Yachts Boutiques in New York, Fort Lauderdale / Miami, Canada, California and Mexico puts on the silver tray for next year the mission of channeling the same trend in Europe and the Middle East. The philosophy of promoting the circulation of a product with a mass taste is abandoned, but the buyer is encouraged towards a subjective design of the aquatic medium.

It is directed towards Sicilian materials (such as wood and marble) and on the elements of Etna (fire and volcano). A peculiarity of Broich is that he designs his boats to sell himself because he declares that “only those who know yachts, sailboats and boats in general and who governs them can know what the user needs.” Therefore the CEO of Aicon Yachts also defines himself as a designer.

The President of the Port System Authority of the Strait of Messina, Mario Mega has exposed himself so that Aicon obtains an outlet to the sea to develop the sector in a perimeter that falls within the Eastern Sicily Zes.

Marc regrets that he has not been able to provide a further push to activate disused hauling / launching areas. If he could, he would have given work to another twenty families and other related activities. But it has already done and will do so much with the trade that it will drag into the Giammoro district.

He has no “blood” children to whom he can dictate his precepts and strategies but he has two dogs, which he cares about as if they were children: Stella remained in America and Leo lives with him in Milazzo.

Marc-Udo Broich Is The American Who Chose Sicily!

– Marcella Ruggeri
 journalist & presenter of Tg