The Bénéteau Group's back-to-school press conference was held at the opening of the Cannes Yachting Festival 2023. The Group took the opportunity to review its four-year transformation plan and its outlook.

Past and future are just as impressive!

8,000 employees, 9 brands, 128 models, sales of €1.45 billion, 80% of which are exports, +30% growth in sales, €200 million in positive cash flow and a share price that has risen by 50%. If the figures alone are anything to go by, it's hard not to understand the euphoria that reigns in the Bénéteau Group, which leads the field in almost every pleasure craft segment. A business school case study.

Bénéteau has streamlined its models, which are now fewer in number and larger in volume, and is now avoiding any internal competition, but continues to launch more than 20 new models each year in its four market segments.

The horizon has now been set for 2030, with three major areas of work aimed at reducing the Group's CO2 emissions by 30%.

An internal study has demonstrated the importance of emissions during the boat's operating phase, through the use of fuel. While powerboats consume a lot of fuel, sailboats are no exception, especially those designed for charter. The model presented by Bénéteau at the conference showed a yacht that uses very little engine power, but we can bet that the data collected by Seanapps, which collects data from yachtsmen during their leisure activities, will enable this model to be refined...

The recent partnership with Volvo Penta on parallel hybrid systems is part of the logic of clean propulsion for this type of activity. Dayboats: 100% electric, sailing, series hybrid and floating real estate parallel hybrid.

If the 100% electric (Torqeedo) and parallel hybrid (Volvo Penta) solutions are well known, will the series hybrids also be Torqeedo? Bénéteau has also announced the arrival of battery-powered air conditioning on the Prestige M8, a system that we will be sure to describe.

Some of the materials made from industrial fibre waste are now recycled into materials for the automotive industry, while the proportion of recycled materials in small composite parts has risen to 35%. Now it's time to move on to large parts. For the first boats, these large parts use Arkema Ellium resin, which has the amazing ability to be separated from the composite it is made of during the recycling phases.

The architecture consists of optimising the design of the hulls of the brand's boats to limit their drag and fuel consumption. We're talking about fixed foils here, and Bénéteau is announcing a highly anticipated innovation for the Cannes Yachting Festival 2024: a Four Winns TH36 with fixed foils!

Catamarans and fixed foils are going to put petrol stations out of business!

The fast-growing field of services has seen a major development this year with the integration of a specialist in boat customisation.

Often technically equipped in a crude way, a trip to a specialist outfitter is a must when planning a voyage. The acquisition of a stake in Yacht Solutions is designed to provide a service solution of this kind within the Group.

The boat clubs and stakes in charter companies Dream Yacht Worldwide and Navigare Yachting are helping to consolidate distribution channels and roll out sailing as a service, uncoupled from ship ownership.

The Group's progress between 2024 and 2030 will be particularly interesting to follow, as the yachting industry becomes less carbon-intensive and the rates/prices/inflation equation becomes far from easy to resolve. An equation that the results of the 'Let's go beyond' plan will probably help to resolve.