IMAGE COURTESY BENETEAU Groupe Beneteau yesterday released the results of its second quarter and first six months of 2024.
Boat-division revenues were down 31.5% in the first half of the year led primarily by a decline in small-boat unit sales (Four Winns, Wellcraft, Glastron, Scarab). Second-quarter boat revenues were down €110 million ($119.45 million), a 25.1% decline year-over-year. Boat revenues from the Americas were down most significantly, posting a 49.7% drop from the first half of 2023.
First-half sailboat revenues declined to €268 million ($291.1 million) from €352.9 million ($383.27 million), a 24.1% drop year-over-year. Powerboat sales fell from €443.1 million ($481.23) to €272.2 million ($295.69 million), a 38.6% fall from the same period last year.
“The macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty is weighing on the entire boat sector, in both Europe and the United States,” CEO Bruno Thivoyon said in a statement. “The distribution networks started, as expected, to scale back their inventory during the first half of 2024.
“Following a record year in 2023, our sales to end customers (sell-out) showed a good level of resilience faced with the market slowdown during the first half of the year thanks to our premiumization strategy. Only our American brands, with the majority still positioned on the segments for small units in the United States, where the transformation of the product offering is being ramped up, were significantly affected.”
The company provided the following guidance for the second half of 2024:
“In a still very uncertain context, boat users have maintained their wait-and-see approach. The reduction in inventory within the distribution networks is expected to continue over the second half of the year and reach, as initially forecast, between €100 million ($108.6 million) and €150 million ($162.9 million) for the year. In this market environment, the boat division is forecasting full-year revenues of around €1 billion ($1.1 billion).”
