The death of the Evinrude outboard motor brand, stopped by its owner, the Canadian group BRP, changes the game in the world of outboard motors: from now on, Mercury engines will equip the transoms of the Scandinavian boats Nordkapp and Sting!

Mercury Marine has just concluded a partnership agreement with the Norwegian group Frydenbø, owner of the Norkapp and Sting brands.

The demise of the Evinrude outboard motor brand has not finished reshuffling the cards in the world of outboard boats, as it puts the hull builders who were partners in the deal, in a difficult situation.

This brutal death, accelerated by the Covid crisis was inevitable, which has its roots in a positioning that has become marginal over the years, due to technological choices that were as brilliant as they were misunderstood by the market, forcing boat builders to urgently set up new partnerships with engine manufacturers.

These partnerships consist of validating ideal engine packages, combining hulls, outboard engines and propellers, knowing that each hull must be able to offer a number of engines in order to offer a choice that will appeal to the maximum number of yachtsmen.

This is a fairly long process, which ultimately leads to what professionals call combos: each boat thus offers, as standard, two to three outboard engines, duly tested and approved, directly marketed by the distribution networks.

In this context, the Frydenbø Group has chosen Mercury Marine, which is a good deal to boost its market share in Northern Europe.

Hans Petter Slang, CEO of Frydenbø "s Marine Division, says to Yachting Art: "Mercury stands for quality, performance and reliability - a perfect partnership with Nordkapp and Sting. This new collaboration will enable us to be ambitious to achieve significant growth in established markets.

Marty Bass, President of Mercury Marine EMEA, said: "We are delighted to expand our partnership with Frydenbø and are proud to be associated with the strong brands of Sting and Nordkapp. Frydenbø and Mercury are both global companies with a strong history of innovation in the marine industry and share a common passion for product leadership. This partnership gives both companies the opportunity to expand our global customer base in the short term and look for additional growth opportunities in the future".

Frydenbø will begin selling boats in packages with Mercury for its 2021 models and plans to showcase the partnership and the new models in September at Båter i sjøen, Scandinavia's largest afloat boat show.

Frydenbø is a diversified Norwegian group with 550 employees and a turnover of €280 million. With a presence in the automotive, real estate, industrial and financial sectors, it also has a marine division with two production sites located in Poland, building the Nordkapp and Sting boats. Frydenbø is also the distributor of Zodiac ribs boats in Norway and Sweden and is the distributor of Bénéteau in Sweden.