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Today there are five principal Polish boatbuilders, all of which have
at one time or another contract-built for Jeanneau, or Marine Power Europe,
or both and four of the five still do. Most of the building activity is
small-boat oriented. Little gets built above 10m (33ft) and the majority
of activity is below 7m (23ft).
Slepsk is probably the biggest builder at the moment. It builds for Brunswick's
Marine Power Europe and for the US giant's Sea Ray subsidiary. Originally
an independent working with both Marine Power Europe and Jeanneau, Ostroda
Yachts has been 100 per cent owned by Jeanneau since January 2002, so
it is now dedicated to Groupe Bénéteau's production requirements.
Delphia Yachts, which up until August this year was known as Sportlake,
builds motorboats for Marine Power Europe and sailboats for Alliaura Marine
in France, as well as motorboats and sailboats under its own and other
brands. Then there is Balt-Yacht, which builds for Marine Power Europe
and itself. Galeon also used to build for both the big players, but last
year decide to go it alone with its own brands.
Other internationally significant boatbuilding concerns in the country
include Germany's Hanse Yachts, which has a moulding operation near Szczecin
to the far northwest, and Skipper Yachts that builds Pegaz and Skippi
sailboats for local and export markets.
High-performance dinghy and sailboat builder Luca Devotti recently moved
his production to the country from the UK. Amongst other things his company
now builds Finns and the Melges 24.
Sailing on the thousands of Polish lakes was popular even during Communist
years, with many sailing clubs linked to state-owned factories. The reason
for the prominence of sail over power was down to the availability and
cost of reliable marine engines. But now Poland has a rising entrepreneurial
class with Western European aspirations we can surely expect leisure boating
to gather pace in the power sector.
For instance, Poland now has some 100 charter operations, 80 per cent
of which are involved with chartering boats within the country, while
only 20 per cent are concerned with charter activity beyond its borders.
A decade ago there were no such companies. The biggest charter operator
is Tiga Yacht, which has over 120 boats between 7m-9m (23ft-30ft) in its
Polish fleet.
Domestic marine leisure activity exists, particularly for sailing on
the lakes. Business for a handful of Polish boatbuilders is excellent.
Most of them contract build for the likes of Marine Power Europe and Group
Bénéteau. A few small sailboats and motorboats are built
for the local market, but the export percentages tend to be well over
90 per cent. With all this OEM activity there is good business and hence
opportunities for materials and equipment suppliers exporting to the country.
As for imported boats, the market is currently tiny with only a handful
of boats coming in each year as consumer-spending power in the country
is way behind the rest of Europe and marina places and cruising destinations
are few and far between on the coast.
Most of those canvassed by IBI expect EU membership to be have a negative
impact in the long run, but that it will be a relatively slow change.
To read Key Market Facts on Poland Click
here
Summarised from the Poland Business Report in IBI's August/September
2003 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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