After 3 years at the head of the Jeanneau brand, Paul Blanc has been appointed head of boat clubs in the Bénéteau Group's Boating Solutions division. He answers our questions on this much-discussed market and the strategy of the Vendée-based group, which recently acquired the start-up Wiziboat, a major player in the French boat club market.
Can you tell us what makes up the Bénéteau Group's Boating Solutions entity?
There are 4 branches within Boating Solutions:
- Charter, where the Group plays a more capital-intensive than operational role, through joint venture investments with the Czech fund PPF in Dream Yacht Worldwide and Navigare.
- Boat clubs in the niche market for small motorboats
- Financing, mainly through our subsidiary SGB Finance with Société Générale
- Digital with Band of Boats and our Sea n Apps application in particular
I've been asked to focus on boat clubs, which deserve the time to do it right.
Why take an interest in boat clubs?
The Group's aim is to provide services that go beyond the purchase of boats. We're not going to replace our dealers, who are the experts in the field. But for a long time now, we've been looking for counter-cyclical activities in the yachting sector, which is very cyclical. Today, we deal more with consumers than with boat owners. Since 2019-2020, the generational transition has accelerated. We used to have baby-boomer customers, but today we have more millenials and Generation Zs.
What's more, there is no well-structured brand name in rental today. Customers have to shop around among a host of small players. Our aim is to structure this to find customers who want to rent.
The Bénéteau Group has already experimented with different boat clubs. What were the obstacles, and why should the new offer, with the takeover of Wiziboat, work out better?
The Group has 2 offerings: the first is in the United States, where we acquired YourBoat Club, an American-style boat club with a host of services, logo T-shirts and all that goes with it, which corresponds to the market. In Europe, we've seen that demand isn't the same. Customers are more interested in smart rentals than club membership. The European consumer is not ready to pay a large sum from the outset, as we saw with Freedom Boat Club and the partnership with Jeanneau. The Bénéteau Boat Club's pilot base in Les Sables d'Olonne, to test the concept, is starting to take off, with 45 members.
In parallel with my work at Jeannneau, in 2022, I was asked to rethink the group's Boat Club strategy. The question arose as to whether we should have a Jeanneau Boat Club on one side and a Bénéteau Boat Club on the other, or a single service. We decided to go for a single brand in Europe. Wiziboat was starting to work with some Bénéteau dealers, who suggested we take an interest. This led to a deal, with us taking a 74% stake in Wiziboat.
The difficulties encountered are partly due to the fact that the average age of the yachtsman is higher than in the United States. Compared with 5 years ago, the generational transition has accelerated. We're also more exposed to the economy of use outside boating.
What's more, it's not the same business to sell boats for 500,000 euros and subscriptions for 500 euros. Dealers aren't the best at selling subscriptions. With dedicated marketing and sales teams, Wiziboat puts the subscriber in the hands of the dealer. As they've done a lot of digitizing, the boat is geolocated, so there's no need for a pontoon with boats grouped together in the harbor. The system runs almost autonomously, with the dealer as a back-up, so there's no need to hire extra staff.
What's in it for the dealer?
It's an additional tool for developing your business. There are no franchise fees, and he can start with boats from his own stock. Wiziboat takes a commission on subscribers, depending on whether they are brought in by Wiziboat or found directly.
There's an interest, not so much for the benefits of the activity as such, but because it brings people into the boating world. It used to be that you bought a 5-meter boat on a trailer, which has now disappeared to some extent, and the boat club is the new entry-level activity. With 5 boats on a base, that's 50 to 100 people, among whom there's bound to be one or two who want to become owners.
What is the development plan and typical base?
We want to develop within the group's dealer network, with a consistent, high-quality offering, and always the same types of boats, renewed every 2 to 3 years. The strength of the network gives us a density that no other company has. We'll be able to optimize and standardize models in the 5 to 7 m open range. While the majority of boats will have to come from the Group's rigid range, we want to keep an open architecture with the possibility, for example, of semi-rigids, as is the case in distribution, where our dealers have complementary niche brands.
The 1st year is aimed at consolidation in France in 2024, followed by deployment in Europe, starting with Italy and Spain in 2025. In France, there's probably more potential in the North, Channel and Atlantic than in the Mediterranean, because the customers are there all the time, and a little less wealthy. There is a market in large cities on the water, and in cities with mobile populations. An engineer appointed to Cherbourg for 3 years won't have a place in a marina before he leaves, whereas he can sail with Wiziboat.
The number of subscribers per boat will be the deciding factor. 6 subscribers per boat works well initially, and can be optimized to 10 later on.
Today's target is 100 bases and 5,000 members by 2028.
