The Poncin Family Group has launched a €130 million investment plan for the next five years to strengthen its position in the catamaran market.
The Poncin Family Group owns the publicly traded Catana Group which posted a €229-million turnover in the 2023/2024 financial year and employs around 1,400 staff at its four boat production facilities based in Canet-en-Roussillon in the South of France, at Marans, near La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast, at El Haouaria in Tunisia, and at Aveiro in Portugal.
Through the investment, the Group aims to strengthen its innovation potential, reduce the time to market for new models, expand its industrial capacity and efficiency and enlarge its commercial and service capabilities.
It will further develop our capacity for innovation and agility, which have been the key factors to our success.
Aurélien Poncin
“This ambitious strategic plan will strengthen the assets of the Group, which will remain a pure player in the catamaran market,” said Aurélien Poncin.
“Above all, it will further develop our capacity for innovation and agility, which have been the key factors to our success.”
The key objectives of its plan include developing 14 new models to occupy six catamaran market sectors: five YOT Power Catamarans models, two Catana models, five Bali models and two Seaty models.
The new models will include larger sailing catamarans over 60ft in length in the Bali range, expanding the YOT brand into inboard power catamarans and extending into the emerging houseboat catamaran market with the new Seaty brand.
Technology partners
The Group will also invest in more than 40,000sqm of new technical capacity in France, two new service locations in France and one in the US.
At Saint-Jean-d’Hermine, in France’s western Vendée region, the Group is undertaking the construction of a multi-activity centre on a 55,000sqm site that will be dedicated to model development, which will include an R&D centre.
The centre will include a dedicated design office hosting an established network of technology partners – multiplexing, data processing, electrical systems management, power generation and electric propulsion and hydraulic systems – that will be further strengthened over the next five years.
Innovative solutions
The Group plans to equip the centre with a workshop and laboratory dedicated to innovation and the qualification of materials and components, located in more than 2,000sqm of buildings that will enable it to design, prototype, test and then deploy innovative solutions.
The new multi-activity centre will also include the construction of a 13,000sqm machining and modelling centre with the aim of reducing the development time for new models.
To reinforce the Group’s momentum, it has taken delivery of a new 25,000sqm factory, built on a 60,000sqm site in Aveiro, Portugal, dedicated to the manufacture of YOT motorboats.
New factory for larger boats
In addition to continued investment in optimising its existing sites, the investment plan also provides for:
· The modernisation of the composites department at the Group’s historic Canet-en-Roussillon factory with a new building of nearly 3,000sqm.
· The construction of a new factory built in the SPL2 extension zone of the Canet-en-Roussillon nautical hub dedicated to the production of larger boats. The factory will be at least 25,000sqm, on a plot of more than 50,000sqm.
The Poncin Family Group has also annouced plans to enlarge its commercial and service capabilities.
This ambitious strategic plan will strengthen the assets of the Group, which will remain a pure player in the catamaran market.
Aurélien Poncin
The Group recently reorganised its North American sales organisation signing an exclusive distribution agreement with the US company Catamaran Guru. The Group has now acquired a 34% stake in the company with the aim of doubling its sales in the region by 2030.
The Group will also build a new service force on France’s Mediterranean coast located at the Leucate Catamarans Marina in Leucate having obtained a 35-year concession for a 27,000sqm body of water.
The Group plans to build a marina dedicated to catamarans, with a capacity for around 80 boats to serve as a commercial and marketing showcase for all the Group’s brands.
Boat charter base
The Group is also planning to open a boat charter base with an initial fleet of six boats in the Port Pin Rolland in the Var region. The base will be led by Christian Castanié and will complement its services base.
The Group will gather direct feedback from customers, as well as essential usage data to better understand customer practices and help guide he development of new solutions.
The Group also has two industrial woodworking shops, at Rivesaltes in the South of France and El Haouaria in Tunisia, enabling it to be fully self-sufficient in the manufacture of its furniture.
The Poncin Family Group owns the publicly traded Catana Group, industrial, commercial, service and technology companies, as well as the Catana, Bali, YOT and Seaty brands.
