Groupe Beneteau restructures

French company Groupe Beneteau has responded to COVID-19 market changes by making changes to the company structure and streamlining its brands. The company previously had 12 different brands but is planning to slim down to eight, keeping the biggest of those, including Jeanneau, Beneteau and Lagoon. It is also restructuring its organisational management and expanding its service activities.

The company says ‘the market environment has been disrupted… and the POST-COVID 19 crisis is bringing in a new economic cycle.’ There has been ‘a sharp contraction in activity worldwide that will affect the recreational boat market. This is expected to be followed by a significant upturn, whose scale will depend on how quickly the health crisis is resolved.’

The company has had a €120 million state-backed loan, and says it is preparing ‘to take on board changes in volumes, initially falling then rising, potentially on a similar scale to that seen with the 2008-2009 crisis.’

‘In view of this, it plans to significantly scale back its production capacity over the coming months, while reducing all of its fixed costs. Discussions are under way with the employee representative partners in France and other countries.’

Boat sales in the US, however, were significantly up throughout the spring – see page 14.