A new Cabesto store in Lorient
The Cabesto brand has already had a good reputation for many years in the south of France, particularly among boaters. After Brest in 2019, it will open a new store in Lorient in April 2022 to open a little more to the Atlantic market. "We plan to open at the end of April 2022, if the work goes well. This allows us to start the 2022 nautical season. The new Cabesto Lorient store has a surface area of 1,500 m² and employs 15 permanent staff with the addition of 5 to 6 seasonal employees during the summer," explains Etienne Lamirand, Cabesto's regional manager.
Building on the success of Cabesto Brest
The opening of the Lorient store is not a coincidence for Cabesto, which has been interested in the Morbihan region for several years. The success of the store in Brest reinforced the company's choice. "Brittany is a territory that Cabesto has been looking at for years. Brest is a successful test with a store that left even stronger than those in the South, while after 2019, we had very quickly the yellow vests, then the Covid. There was a very good response from Brest and Finistère" Etienne Lamirand is pleased.
Lorient is a first choice customer for Cabesto. "At the beginning, we even wanted to start in Lorient, which is one of the meccas of the nautical world, open to all types of boating, but also to gliding and diving. Morbihan also has a good clientele for delicatessen products," adds the regional director of the company, which, in addition to water sports, has 14 stores in the mountains, as well as a range of local food products.
Find your place in the Breton nautical industry
Cabesto has already started to adapt its offer to the specificities of the Channel and Atlantic sailors. "We were born in the Mediterranean. In the Atlantic, certain types of fishing change. The notion of port changes, as does the anchorage. We have a little more electronics, security, maintenance or life on board and less beach. However, the backbone is the same," says Etienne Lamirand.
The brand sees in the Breton nautical market an opportunity for development to pursue. "There is an interesting pattern of competition between generalists like Decathlon and shipchandlers, for us whose model is to house a multitude of specialized stores under one roof. We want to develop the Breton network in cities such as Vannes, Saint-Malo, Nantes, Saint-Brieuc or Quimper" concludes Cabesto's regional director.
