Palumbo rebrands refit division as Upfit
Palumbo Upfit working with MY Taiba
Palumbo Superyachts Refit has been renamed Palumbo Upfit as the business broadens its focus from individual refit projects to longer-term maintenance, repair, upgrades and technical support for yachts. The company says the change reflects how its work has developed over several years.
“We did not feel the need to change what we are,” says Antonio Palumbo, CEO of Palumbo Upfit. “We felt the need to give a name to what we had become.”
From refit to ongoing support
The renamed division brings repair, maintenance, conversion, technical upgrades, engineering, structural works, systems and interiors under one approach.
The company says the aim is to link work carried out at different stages of a yacht’s operational life, rather than treating each yard visit as a separate project.
“Refit remains fundamental to our work, but Upfit reflects something broader: the responsibility to understand the vessel, to connect every intervention and to carry that knowledge and commitment forward over time,” Palumbo says.
The approach includes identifying potential future technical issues, putting preventive measures in place and advising owners on decisions intended to keep yachts operating after they leave the yard.
Seven yards across four countries
Palumbo’s business began in 1967 as a repair centre for commercial vessels in the port of Naples. Its network now covers seven shipyards across France, Italy, Malta and Croatia.
The facilities provide more than 44.5 hectares of combined space, 5.6 kilometres of berthing, ten dry docks with lengths of up to 268 metres and seven floating docks with a maximum lifting capacity of 40,000 tonnes. The network also has four travel lifts and one syncro lift with capacities of up to 3,300 tonnes.
The company says owners can use different facilities within the network depending on the work required, the yacht’s infrastructure needs and its cruising programme.
That could mean spreading painting, engineering, technical upgrades, interior work and structural modifications across several yard periods rather than concentrating them into one project.
New brand identity
Palumbo says the rebrand is intended to describe an existing way of working rather than represent a change in ownership or direction.
“We were guided by a way of working before we were defined by a name,” he says. “The name is new. The commitment behind it is not.”
Palumbo Upfit says it supports more than 125 superyachts each year. The business remains family-owned, with the fourth generation involved in management.
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