Like most other countries in Europe, France’s marine leisure market has managed to grow more or less consistently for much of the past decade. Today it ranks as the world’s second and Europe’s largest consumer boating market.
The French have been buying lots of boats and French marine businesses have been building them and/or selling them and manufacturing and/or retailing equipment for them in ever increasing quantities. And for the biggest producers their success at home has been double-digit magnified by exports to a generally booming world market.
Now is an interesting time, however. Where do we go from here? The current crisis in the world’s financial markets must surely impact business in France as everywhere else and has resulted in a definite nervousness as to what 2008-09 holds in store.
The French autumn boat shows last year delivered the goods. The selling season kicked off with positive enough editions in September of the country’s two most important regional shows, Cannes 2007 and La Rochelle 2007, which these days irritatingly overlap — a real pain for those of us that need to be at both. The 34th Le Grand Pavois de La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast pulled in its usual 750 exhibitors and 100,000 or so visitors and the 30th Festival International de la Plaisance de Cannes on the Cote d’Azur attracted its usual 500 or so exhibitors and 55,000 visitors. Then the country’s grand dame show, Paris’s Salon Nautique, stood up similarly well, with its 47th edition attracting 850 or so exhibitors and 270,000 visitors to the Portes des Versailles at the beginning of December.
The scale of these events is perhaps to be expected, particularly considering the market in France has been very good for the past few years and that there seems to be a general decline in gates at most of the world’s mature shows. Globally the industry growth of the past decade or so has not been reflected in greater boat show attendance. Gates have remained static at best or have declined, all suggestive of the accepted trend for bigger boats and cheaper boats.
As it stands — and not factoring in any global financial meltdown — it appears France is looking at a flat year ahead. It has that feel to it. There isn’t a crisis yet; but who knows?
Certainly the political honeymoon period for France’s new premier Nicolas Sarkozy now appears to be well and truly over. He is increasingly unpopular in his own UMP party, never mind the country at large. There has been widespread dissatisfaction over his economic policies and plunging opinion poll ratings that put him now on a par with predecessor Jacques Chirac’s least popular spell in 1996. It doesn’t matter that most of the economic ills facing the country at the moment were inherited by the Chirac government, namely alarming public debt figures, rising inflation and slowing GDP. That’s politics. What isn’t politics — and certainly not French politics — is his playboy private life splashing all over the world’s media — very un-French.
Generally the French industry’s performance mirrors what has been happening globally during this recent boom time. Things are better towards the premium, big-boat end of the market rather than in the smaller boat sector.
As for the exporters, particularly the bigger guys, those with truly global footprints, and France is blessed with a number of those, business remains relatively healthy.
One of the most obvious indicators to the fact that the French market has been very strong up until now is the acute lack of berths in the country. Everyone is seemingly complaining on that score. Not surprisingly the problem is at its worst in all the best marinas and harbours, where extreme measures are now required to get a space — meaning to get a berth one has to essentially take an old boat out of commission by whatever means, whether by buying an old boat with mooring or by buying an owner of an older boat with a mooring, which is much the same thing. Such moves are made either by the boat owner wanting a berth or more likely by the boat dealer wanting a sale and realising that in order to get it a berth needs to be secured. Several boat dealers bemoaned the problem to IBI during the Cannes and Paris shows. Not surprisingly the Cote d’Azur is worst affected.
A number of new marina projects are at various stages of development. But just about everyone agrees that what is being talked about will barely scratch the surface of the problem. The problem will only be remedied by time and money as regards new marinas or by recession.
As to the year ahead, we can only report what some of the key players tell us, but with global economics the way they are, few would admit to being confident about the way things are developing. Most admit they are apprehensive.
Industry trade bodies can usually be relied upon to talk positive, however. And FIN — Fédération des Industries Nautiques — is no different. It is certainly forecasting still-more growth next year, but then its forecasts largely reflects the success of its principal player Groupe Bénéteau, of which a lot more later. Save to say that latter concern is deemed to account for no less than 60 per cent of all France’s leisure boatbuilding industry.
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Summarised from the French Business Report in IBI's February/March 2008 issue The full report can be purchased from International Boat Industry - Back Issues Department, PO Box 772, Peterborough PE2 6WJ, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1733 385 170. Fax: +44 (0) 1733 239 356 mailto:backissues@johndentonservices.com Copies are £15 each plus postage (£1 UK; £2 airmail Europe; £4 airmail elsewhere)
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