Sourcing interior leather in the Med refit hub: Palma and Barcelona
Send your sample book to the yard and it will sit on the wrong desk. In the Mediterranean refit hub the material decision belongs to the upholsterer and the owner's representative — and the calendar belongs to the haul-out window.
In Palma and Barcelona the yard rarely picks the leather. STP Palma runs an open-yard model with more than 600 registered contractors and over 1,200 yachts a year, so the interior material is specified by an independent upholsterer or the owner's representative — on a calendar set by the haul-out window, not by the yard's purchasing department.
Get that wrong and you send your sample book to the wrong desk, three months late.
Who actually specifies the leather on a Med refit?
The Mediterranean refit market has two anchors and two very different contracting models, and the difference decides who you talk to.
Barcelona is anchored by MB92, the largest single superyacht refit yard in the world, working vessels up to 220 metres. It is also the yard changing fastest: after a 10-year concession extension, MB92 Barcelona has committed more than €40 million between 2026 and 2028 to expand capacity and facilities, following Squircle Capital's acquisition of a 100 % stake in the group in March 2026. Larger yard, larger projects, more of the interior scope managed inside a main contract.
Palma works the other way. STP is an open yard: the owner or captain chooses freely from the contractors registered to work inside the facility. Volume is the point — 1,200-plus yachts a year through one technical area. The upholsterer is an independent business with its own material relationships, and the yard is the landlord, not the buyer.
| Who | What they decide | What they need from a tannery |
|---|---|---|
| Refit yard / project manager | Scope, schedule, subcontractor list | Lead times that fit the slot; nothing else |
| Marine upholsterer | Article, thickness, hide size, cutting yield | Physical samples, yield per hide, repeat availability |
| Interior designer | Colour, texture, finish family | Pantone development, hand-feel references |
| Owner's representative / captain | Sign-off, budget, matching to existing interior | Batch continuity, documentation, honesty about wear |
| Class / flag surveyor | Fire file for the finished assembly | Test reports on the real article, not a generic datasheet |
Five signatures, one material. The practical consequence: your reference has to survive four handovers, which is why an article code plus a batch commitment beats a colour name every time.
What does the refit calendar do to lead times?
Med refit work concentrates outside the charter season. Yachts come out roughly from October through April, with specification and long-lead ordering happening in late summer and early autumn. Material that is not confirmed before the vessel is on the hard becomes a variation order.
| Stage | Realistic window | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Specification & sample round | Aug–Oct | The moment to fix article, colour and finish |
| Stock article delivery | 1–2 weeks | Available colours, no development |
| Pantone / bespoke colour development | 1–2 weeks | Then production of the batch |
| Physical samples for owner sign-off | 1–2 weeks | Send early; sign-off is the real bottleneck |
| Fire test on the finished assembly | 3–5 weeks after mock-up | Owned by the upholsterer, not the material |
| Haul-out and installation | Oct–Apr | Any re-order inside this window is a delay |
The number that matters is not our lead time; it is batch continuity. A refit interior is finished in phases, and phase two can be four months after phase one. A written commitment to hold the batch for 12–24 months is what stops a saloon and a set of cabins from being visibly different shades of the same colour.
What should go in the RFQ?
Six lines, and the quotation stops being a guess:
- Zone by zone, not "leather for the interior". Saloon, cabins, helm and dining behave differently — see marine-grade leather for yacht interiors for the zone logic, and be honest about what stays inside. Exposed cockpit and sunpads are not a leather job; genuine leather vs marine vinyl sets out where each one wins.
- Thickness and hide size, because the upholsterer prices by yield. Interior panels and cushion faces typically sit around 0.9–1.3 mm.
- Performance written as tests, not adjectives: abrasion cycles, light-fastness on the actual article, low fogging, hydrolysis resistance.
- Fire scope stated explicitly — the certificate belongs to the assembly, not the hide. Fire certification for marine and contract interiors explains why a material datasheet alone will not clear a surveyor.
- Batch continuity of 12–24 months, with the phase dates you already know.
- Traceability, with certificate number and expiry. Ours is LWG Gold — details in LWG Gold certified Spanish tannery.
Proximity is doing more work here than it used to. We tan in Elda, Alicante — a road trip from Barcelona, a short freight hop to Palma — which means a re-cut, a colour adjustment or a missing half-hide is a matter of days rather than a re-order from Asia. Leather supplier in Alicante covers what that changes operationally, sourcing interior leather for boat builders is the new-build equivalent of this piece, and leather for superyacht interiors goes deeper on cabin specification. For branded pieces delivered alongside the refit, see custom yacht cushion covers and the owner's kit.
If you are pricing a winter slot now, request samples before the vessel is booked in — stock articles ship in 1–2 weeks, and owner sign-off is what actually sets your critical path. If what you are missing is not the material but the contractor — an upholsterer with capacity inside the yard, a trim workshop, a leatherworker for the owner's kit — post the scope on our open B2B board under Partners & factories.
FAQ
Should I approach the yard or the upholsterer?
The upholsterer, in Palma almost always. STP's open-yard model means the contractor holds the material relationship. In Barcelona, larger managed projects mean the project manager may control it — ask who holds the interior scope before you send anything.
When does specification actually happen for a winter refit?
Late summer to early autumn for an October–April haul-out. Sample rounds and owner sign-off run ahead of the slot; material confirmed after the vessel is on the hard turns into a variation order with a cost attached.
Can the same leather be used on the flybridge?
Generally no. Interior leather is specified for cabin conditions. Exposed positions need a marine-treated or coated construction, or a technical textile. Anyone who tells you one article covers both has not seen a boat after two Mediterranean summers.
How do I match leather to an existing interior four months later?
By batch, not by colour reference. Ask for a written hold on the production batch covering all your phases, and keep a signed physical reference from the first delivery. Colour codes drift between batches; a reserved batch does not.