François Lebailly, liquidator of the Wrighton Bi-Loup sailboat brand, explains to BoatIndustry the steps that led to the end of the company.
Can you remind us of the process that led to the takeover of Wrighton Bi-Loup?
My partners, Patrick Fallot and Thierry Bocquet, had ordered Bi-Loup sailboats from Wrighton, before the company went bankrupt in 2014. While looking at the plans, they found the name of my son Vincent Lebailly, naval architect, who was at the origin of the project. So they contacted him again to continue the project. As I was of the same generation as them, my son involved me in the design choices and I became friends with Patrick and Thierry. I was thinking of changing boat as I was approaching retirement, so I told them: I'm going with you. We thought that with a boat designed for three clients from different cultures, we could adapt it to others. So we each invested part of the sale of our respective businesses to found Wrighton Bi-Loup.
We then built the 3 new Bi-Loup 109 with the Shoreteam Yard in Caen. As a carpenter by trade, I started to work on boat fittings. After buying the molds of the old Bi-Loup models, we built 2 Bi-Loup 78 and 2 Bi-Loup 90. We were now operational having tried all the models.
In your opinion, what are the elements that have prevented the Bi-Loup sailboats from restarting in the long term?
We were attached to the Bi-Loup brand. We worked more on affect than on professionalism. Our big commercial mistake was that we thought that a large part of Wrighton's clientele would renew their boats for bigger ones. We were aiming for 3 to 4 boats per year. However, the "defect" of the Bi-Loup is that they are very robust. The boaters, owners for 10 to 15 years, do not want to change. Moreover, after 5 years of disappearance of the brand from the general public, the customers had left for the competition.
I think we should have attacked the export market directly. We had some serious touches in Southampton, but we arrived in the year of the Brexit and our two prospects were afraid of the consequences on their professional activities.
Why stop the Wrighton Bi-Loup business now?
When we started, we knew what a mold cost and what we were committing to. To start new markets, especially in Northern Europe, we would have to reinvest about 500,000 euros, and offer new finishes. Currently, we have few debts, it is the right time to stop. We went around boat builders, without success, to propose shares because we were attached to the Bi-Loup brand. So we started the sale in separate parts. The assets are mainly the molds, masts, booms and hardware of the old models.
