Groupe Beneteau says business down 25-30% in last four months
Groupe Beneteau has issued its interim financial statement. While it says it’s benefiting from its multi-specialist positioning, enabling it to offset the sharp contraction on certain markets (charter) through growth in other segments (outboard), the impacts of the crisis on the last four months of 2020 remain significant, with business over this period expected to be down 25% to 30% year-on-year.
Measures to adapt production capacity and fixed costs in line with current market volumes are being rolled out and will make it possible to reduce costs by €45m to €65m on a full-year basis.
The interim results at end-August 2020 (12 months of a 16-month transition year ending December 31, 2020) are better than forecast in early July thanks to a good level of activity over the summer with the lifting of the lockdown.
Groupe Beneteau says rationalising its brands from 12 into eight, has enabled the company to reduce its investments in 2020 by 30% compared with 2019 (-€26m). The company says it’s maintained a strong level of activity creating new models (18 were presented this summer).
The group’s also looking at new models for segments like small outboard powered catamarans or electric lake and river boats to support a new industrial strategy for the boat division. This is going to focus on increasingly specialised production units for each type and size of boat. The boat division has adjusted its production capacity in each country to respond to developments in its markets. Five sites have been gradually hibernated, closed or sold, with production transferred to other sites, and partial activity measures have been rolled out in France and Italy.
