French boatbuilders move to Brittany
By IBI Magazine
The luxury yacht market in Brittany, France is to get a significant boost following news that two of the country's leading boatbuilders — Alliaura Marine and Arcoa — are to set up shop in the region.
French catamaran builder Alliaura Marine is planning to build a new production plant at the Rohu shipbuilding zone in Lanester, on the northwest tip of Brittany. The site is thought to comprise of several hectares of land and 500m (1,640ft) of quay.
According to regional development agency Bretagne International, the new facility will concentrate on the production of the Privilège 745, a 23m (75ft) sailing catamaran, and will create up to 190 new jobs over the next three years.
Arcoa, a Normandy-based producer of motoryachts from 12m-20m (39ft-66ft), is also moving to the region, having just secured funds of €500,000 from the Investment Agency of Bretagne to develop a new shipyard in Lorient. The site will be used to produce a new range of larger, luxury yachts and is expected to create around 100 jobs over a three-year period.
"Brittany offers excellent facilities and support services for businesses active in the naval and maritime industries, as the latest development plans by Alliaura Marine and Arcoa demonstrate," says Laurence Gros, UK representative for Bretagne International."
The new sites in Brittany are said to offer jetty access, warehousing facilities, good security and accessibility to specialist subcontractors in an area that already employs some 1,300 people in the boating and yachting sector.
(22 July 2008)
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