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Overall, the picture regarding Germany's marine leisure industry is
mixed. Local demand is still relatively poor, but that is not to say
that the industry does not have its success stories. It does.
Its exporters continue to do well and some are doing very well. The biggest sailboat players such as Bavaria and Hanse are still thriving, as are the most respected superyacht builders, Lürssen and Abeking & Rasmussen. Similarly domestic marine equipment manufacturers, many of whom have grown up supporting these globally significant yards, are also doing well internationally, whether directly or indirectly.
Fairing less well are those reliant on purely German demand. For example, the chandlery sector has been coping with slow business for a number of years now and things don't seem to be improving. A non-attributable chat recently with a prominent German marine industry figure seemingly put the German domestic market situation in a nutshell. "If you ask me on the record," he said, "I will tell you what most people say when they are asked ëhow's it going?'. I'll say good. We are doing well and things are now showing real signs of improvement. That's the sort of thing everyone in business wants to be able to say and, if it's not, you feel that you have to project only positive messages anyway. Off the record, the reality is very different. There's no real sign of improvement at all that I can see. It is a tough market out there. The German people just seem to have forgotten how to spend money. It is not that there are not people out there with money, it just seems to have become unfashionable to spend it!"
One area that has seen a change over the past year is the import situation, particularly those companies importing from the US, where the dollar is currently so weak. This is not a specifically German phenomenon. It applies to the whole euro zone, but that some pick up in Germany is evident at all is encouraging. Marcel Rijnbeek, the man charged with looking after Sea Ray, Boston Whaler and Baja's interests in Europe, is more positive about the German market than he has been for a long time. He reports a 20-25 per cent pick up in sales in terms of units and value for 2003/04 over 2002/03, which was up only slightly on its worst year in Germany, 2001/02. Now business is back up to around 100 boats a year, which compares to the lowest ebb of not much more than 50. "I'm actually optimistic at the moment," he told IBI in mid-March, "and I haven't been able to say that to you about Germany for quite a while. Things are genuinely looking up as far as I can tell. And it is not just about what is happening at the retail level. The inventory levels are going down too at our four principal German dealers, which for me is more important!"
While Rijnbeek admits that the weakness of the dollar has had a big impact, he says the reality is that retail prices haven't really reduced by much at all. What has happened is that dealers have become incentivised and the discount possibilities have become greater ó and this of course applies not just to Germany but all over the EU and in the UK too.
A strong euro has also helped the sale of British boats in Germany, and elsewhere in Europe for that matter, but volumes are still nowhere near where they used to be a decade ago. Italian boats have found German buyers harder to find, despite the fact that the Italian lire lock-in rate to the euro was so beneficial.
Düsseldorf Boot
Attendance at the 35th Düsseldorf Boot was up ever so slightly. The
nine-day event pulled in 309,000 visitors, up from a 2003 figure of
around 307,453. For comparison around 333,641 attended in 2002, 354,365
in 2001, 361,008 in 2000 and 367,328 in 1999. But then things are way
off the high days of the late 1980s and early 1990s when the numbers
were fairly regularly over the 400,000 mark. The gate peaked in 1988
at 426,934, so we are close to 120,000 down on that now.
By far the majority of Germans visiting the show live within a three-hour drive. But a worthwhile percentage of the visitor gate hails from abroad, in all some 60 countries figure on the statistics.
At least the majority of the show's 1,650 exhibitors, occupying between them some 100,000m2 (1,076,000ft2) of floor space, this time seemed reasonably positive about the show and their year ahead, although the international status of the show means that business done at Boot Düsseldorf is never just about Germans buying boats and equipment in Germany.
Occupying 45 per cent of the floor space, the 619 exhibitors this time came from over 50 countries. The largest foreign contingent were the Dutch with 156 companies represented, followed by the Italians with 78, the French with 64 and the British with 40.
Show director Abdul-Rahman Adib told IBI that he was nevertheless happy with progress, especially considering the economic backdrop in Germany at the moment. The exhibitors, he said, generally seemed happy enough with attendance and with business levels compared to last year, adding that German consumer confidence was at last showing some signs of improvement, albeit small. He felt the return of foreign visitors was particularly important for the show.
According to the organiser's post-show survey 69 per cent of exhibitors considered the fair to have been a commercial success and almost 80 per cent expected good follow up business. As to coming back next year, 92 per cent said they would do so. One element of the show that did register a significant amount of dissatisfaction, however, was the superyacht contingent. A few key players and a few national pavilions, most notably the Dutch, had stayed away this time and the 120 companies professing to be in the superyacht business that did come seemed to be unhappy about arrangements and the negative signals such a no-show sent out.
In all there were 1,800 boats on display. The biggest boat at the show was a Mangusta 108 powercruiser and the largest sailing yacht was the all-new Oyster 82.
As regards a general industry view, Claus-Ehlert Meyer, head of industry federation DBSV (Deutscher Boots und Schiffbauer-Verband), agrees that there are few signs of improvement to be found.
"My members here (Düsseldorf) tell me things are better than last year, but that progress is slow," he says. "We still have a long way to go from the activity levels of even five or six years ago."
For a comprehensive analysis of the German Boating market go to Market Surveys
To read Key Market Facts on Germany Click
here
Summarised from the German Business Report in IBI's April/May 2004.
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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