Immediately after the release from containment, a majority of professionals were quite optimistic about the summer period, suggesting a significant level of activity that would allow them to recover all or part of the business loss during the almost 3 months of reduced activity.
After talking in June with 5 motorboat professionals, boatindustry asked them again how they felt.
A very local clientele and a return to popular motorboating.
Accustomed to working for an international and well-to-do clientele, Jean-Marc Graglia (Marine Moteurs Côte d'Azur) says from the outset that the summer season has been calm and then goes on to say: " the small boat renters have done a great job, there are people on the water. Containment has allowed owners of older boats to repair them. On the other hand, the clientele corresponding to Marine Moteurs Côte d'Azur is absent. The boats that we are used to maintaining in 40 and 60 footers don't sail, neither the yacht tenders nor the big charter yachts" .
The products are becoming more and more reliable, with maintenance intervals becoming longer and longer, and even if the manager confirms that the boats have left the hangars to be launched, few have actually sailed, which makes Jean-Marc Graglia concerned about his winter activity and concludes: " the winter will be very quiet as well." .
A season of good performance and a reassuring order book
Much further north in Haute-Normandie, Quentin Grémare of Nautic HQ, whom we had left with his worries about the delay in delivering the 15 boats before the summer holidays, proudly announces: " We have met the deadlines, the customers are delighted and the weather is still there. It's sailing and finally we've made up the delay. "
In the management of summer emergencies, some vessel maintenance has been postponed to this fall due to a lack of capacity. As these vessels are maintained regularly, the risk of disorders is very limited. Quentin Grémare confirms the good performance of the 2020 season despite a few unavailabilities at the end of the summer and is pleased to have an order book that suggests a good level of sales, not to mention the prospects for the future. Finally, the manager notes that since the health crisis " I have the impression that I am finding a clientele for boats with a budget of less than 50,000 euros, the future is rather positive ".
A staff on the verge of rupture
In Languedoc and Charente, our 2 entrepreneurs, Jean-Louis Metge (Sud Yachting) and José Nadau (José Nautic) also confirm that they did not have a bad summer in terms of business, but note a general physical and psychological tiredness related to this period which will have marked the spirits.
Jean-Louis Metge notes that " We're going, we're trying to survive, but we'll have had a decent season at 9 months instead of 12 in a rare state of fatigue ".
For José Nadau, like most professionals, the loss of earnings from the containment was recovered and ended with a very slight decrease in activity: " it took a lot of work to achieve 5 months of activity in 3 months " and adds: " we've been forced to turn away customers. "
In Vannes in southern Brittany, "MMG should end its fiscal year at the end of September with a 5% drop, which is not bad," says Hervé Corbel and like his colleagues, to avoid everyone in the team cracking up, "we were forced to give everyone a holiday."
A backlog of orders, absence of fairs and supply disruptions to manage
Jean-Louis Metge confirms that he already has a backlog of orders for this new season and believes: " the cancellation of the fairs will bring customers and prospects to the store, so I worked a lot with my partners to get conditions and be able to present a wide range of products. If we don't have a product to present, it's better to close! ".
If in a period of confinement, deliveries were random because of the pace of the carriers, which is no longer the case today, José Nadau adds " We are again suffering from breakdowns, I have the impression that the equipment in general is coping with the production stoppages linked to containment. "
As for Hervé Corbel: "as we've fallen behind on certain assemblies, we have a good order book for the coming months" and is optimistic for the 2021 season, as after this episode of health and economic crisis, a large majority of people want to take advantage of it, one customer confided: "since I've been wanting a boat for so long, the Covid has made me decide. »
Interesting perceptives
Generally speaking, the market has been maintained in geographical areas where yachtsmen are mainly local, and the outlook for 2021 seems very correct despite the cancellation of the boat shows
The battle for the 2021 season is likely to be the ability of suppliers to deliver orders in a marine industry where production is globalized.
