Aschenez Group Appoints Luca Brancaleon as Executive VP of Sales & Marketing

Aschenez Group has appointed Luca Brancaleon as Executive VP of Sales & Marketing as the Italian boating group prepares for a new phase of product development, international expansion and dealer-network growth. The appointment brings an executive with more than two decades of industry experience into the management team overseeing brands including Invictus Yacht, Capoforte Boats and Marcopolo Adventure Yachts.

Brancaleon joins at a point when Aschenez says it is preparing significant new product developments and looking to strengthen the international reach of its brands. His role will connect product strategy more closely with distribution and end-customer expectations, giving the group an executive whose background spans both major industrial organisations and the retail side of the marine market.

More than two decades across major boating groups

Brancaleon has worked in recreational boating for more than 22 years, with senior positions at Sessa Marine, Brunswick Boat Group and Groupe Beneteau forming the earlier part of his career. That experience exposed him to brand development, product strategy and large international dealer structures before he moved more directly into marine retail and distribution.

Over the past three years, he has led the development of a multi-brand dealership group in France operating through 14 sales locations. The business represented brands including Beneteau, Wellcraft, Highfield, Galeon Yachts and Azimut Yachts, giving Brancaleon a closer view of how dealer economics, local markets and customer expectations influence product positioning.

That shift from manufacturer-side management to distribution is central to the rationale Aschenez gives for the appointment. The group wants to use Brancaleon's experience to align future products and brand strategy with what dealers and end users are seeing in individual markets, rather than treating product development and commercial expansion as separate functions.

Three brands enter the next growth phase

Aschenez Group's current portfolio spans Invictus Yacht, Capoforte Boats and Marcopolo Adventure Yachts, giving Brancaleon responsibility across several distinct areas of the leisure-boating market. The appointment provides the group with a senior commercial figure able to work across the portfolio while supporting expansion of the sales network and future projects.

The move also follows a broader period of consolidation for the business. Earlier in 2026, Aschenez Holding completed the acquisition of the remaining 40% of Aschenez Srl, becoming sole shareholder and placing the group's shipyards and brands under fully integrated ownership.

That ownership change created a clearer structure for coordinating manufacturing, brand development and international sales. Aschenez reported two production sites in Calabria and Sicily, around 200 employees and an international commercial network extending to more than 50 dealers.

Distribution experience moves closer to product strategy

For Brancaleon, the new role brings together experience accumulated on both sides of that structure. He has worked inside large boating groups with complex brand portfolios, but his more recent distribution work has also placed him closer to sales teams, service operations and the purchasing decisions made by customers at dealer level.

In the original appointment announcement, Brancaleon said the years spent in distribution had given him a different perspective on the market and on the needs of dealers and end customers. He described Aschenez as a group he had known since its early years and presented the move as an opportunity to turn that market-facing experience into new growth.

The appointment matters most in the context of what Aschenez says comes next. The group has signalled further product development, continued international expansion and additional strengthening of its brands' market presence, making the sales-and-marketing function closely tied to the next stage of growth rather than simply day-to-day commercial management.

New products and international expansion ahead

Invictus Yacht, Capoforte Boats and Marcopolo Adventure Yachts give Aschenez a multi-brand portfolio supported by an established international dealer structure. A coordinated commercial strategy across those names can help the group connect new-product planning with the requirements seen by distributors and customers in individual markets.

The immediate test for the new management structure will be how effectively upcoming product introductions translate into stronger international distribution. For a group that already operates through a broad dealer network, growth will depend not only on adding outlets but also on giving those partners products and positioning suited to increasingly competitive regional markets.

Brancaleon's appointment therefore arrives as part of a wider organisational phase rather than as an isolated executive change. Aschenez is pairing consolidated ownership with new product ambitions and international growth, while bringing in an executive whose recent experience sits directly at the intersection of manufacturing strategy, dealer networks and customer demand.