A new era has begun for the Finnish brand Axopar, which has just acquired a majority stake in a Polish shipyard that builds some of its sports outboard boats.

Axopar is definitely on a roll.

The Finnish brand, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary and which invented a segment of the motorboating market that has since become a market in its own right - that of adventure outboards with a post-modern Nordic design - has just taken control of the Markos Sp. shipyard, a subcontractor that produced some of its boats.

For this majority takeover, which took place on 4 June, Axopar created a new entity, AX Composites Ltd, which in turn acquired a stake in Markos Sp.

This vertical integration brings with it major ambitions for Axopar, which has set itself the goal of becoming one of the world leaders in composite boats, thanks to the dynamism of the adventure boat segment that it has itself created, and which is seeing the arrival of specialist shipyards, but curiously - and rather incomprehensibly - the absence of generalists.

The Markos shipyard, located in Slupsk, Poland, specialises in the construction of composite components for heavy industry, as well as for the energy, marine and automotive sectors. In particular, glass fibre-reinforced composite products used, for example, in boats, motor vehicles, transport and transport installations.

Markos was founded 30 years ago.

By 2023, it will have achieved sales of €71 million, and employs more than 1,200 professionals.

Despite the slowdown in the market, Axopar is accelerating its development, and will achieve sales growth of 15% in 2023, while increasing its profitability.

"We promised that our 10th anniversary year would be full of surprises. The investment in Markos is one of those surprises. The investment in Markos is one of the most important announcements of this landmark year. one of the most important announcements of this landmark year. A strategic expansion of this kind is more than just an investment. investment; it demonstrates our commitment to always move forward, to innovate and to grow," says Jan-Erik Viitala, founding partner of Axopar on ActuNautique Yachting Art.

Axopar announces that there will be no immediate changes to Markos' current activities and relationships as a result of this majority takeover. Markos will continue to serve its customers, including other boat brands, as usual.

It should be noted that since the beginning of 2014, Axopar has also established a long-term partnership with another OEM shipyard, MPPB J.W. Slepsk, and will continue to deepen its collaboration with Slepsk in the future.