Nautal joins the Click&Boat group
The transaction was announced at the end of July 2020. The Click&Boat group, a specialist in boat rental on the internet, has acquired its main European competitor, the Spanish company Nautal. "Discussions had started in February, before the containment. They have been paused to deal within Nautal and Click&Boat with our customers' requests for cancellations and postponements of rentals. They were resumed after the crisis and concluded at the end of July," explains Edouard Gorioux, co-founder of the Click&Boat platform.
Combining brands and boat fleets
As with the acquisition of the German Scansail at the beginning of 2020, the Click&Boat Group wishes to retain the Nautal brand. " The brand will endure, as will all the teams based in Barcelona. The aim is to develop the brand as such " reassures Edouard Gorioux. With around forty employees, the Spanish company is expected to recruit around twenty new employees in 2021.
If the brands remain distinct, the fleets of boats are brought together. The offer goes from 35,000 boats to 45,000 sailing boats and motor units offered worldwide. " We will be able to make life easier for owners with a single platform to manage their advertisement and booking schedule and the choice to publish on one or two sites. They will have more visibility and more requests, with a substantially equivalent business model, with a comparable commission. On the users' side, they will benefit from the largest offer available on the Internet "says Edouard Gorioux.
Developing services
Through Nautal, Click&Boat is acquiring a new clientele." There is a complementarity of clienteles. Click&Boat is strengthening its position in Spain, which was already our 2nd largest European market, but we are also acquiring German, Dutch and Brazilian customers with whom Nautal is well established "says the leader.
Even if the post covid recovery varies from country to country, Click&Boat is optimistic. " We did +100% in France in June/July and +70% in Spain. It's more complicated for English or German speaking clients who have to fly to the boat rental locations. As we grow in size, we have the capacity to invest in additional services such as the air offer, transfers and hotel nights with the purchase of Oceans Evasion or the development of the mobile application "says Edouard Gorioux. The objective is to double the volume of business to reach 100 Meuros in 2021. " This will be achieved through both external growth and organic growth "he concludes.
