Boating & yachting - Bad news from Lorient, western of France.

We have just learned that the Marsaudon Composites shipyard, builder of ORC sport catamarans, was placed in receivership last Friday.

This placement in receivership, with a 6-month observation period, follows a suspension of payments. 

Marsaudon Composites is positioned in a very specific market segment, some would say a niche market, namely sports catamarans with daggerboards, aimed at owners. These are units that can reach incredible speeds, and provide strong sensations at the tiller, but are not for everyone!

The Marsaudon Composites range comprises 3 models: the ORC 42 (ex-TS 42), ORC 50 (ex-TS 50) and ORC 57.

In such an owner-driven market, these units are marketed directly, with successive instalments paid from project launch to delivery. A suspension of payments therefore means that the instalments are not sufficient to cover the structure's fixed costs, and the manufacturing costs of units under construction.

This, in a context where shortages of certain components have affected production schedules, slowing down or even significantly delaying deliveries, and therefore the payment of substantial sums.

Decrypting - This receivership comes at a very difficult time for the yachting industry, where sales have been at a standstill for months, and distributor inventories are at their highest, with a change of vintage coming up in a big month. The situation began with the war in Ukraine, followed by the end of the 10% VAT on LOA, the sharp general increase in the price of new boats (30% to 50% in 3 years), and has continued with the rise in interest rates, which have caused the cost of credit to soar (4% to 5% in France, 7% in the USA...).