As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, the Catana Group simultaneously celebrates the opening of its newest factory. Designed to help the Catana Group cope with surging demand for its hugely popular catamarans, the new facility represents the latest milestone for the company in this highly competitive market. Group Sales & Marketing Director Boris Compagnon, spoke with Richard Hagan about the challenge and the excitement of delivering dreams to customers worldwide.
Headquartered in France, the Catana Group consists of three iconic brands: Bali Catamarans, Catana Catamarans and YOT Power Catamarans. Each brand delivers a unique portfolio of products designed to meet the specific needs of particular markets and customers.
The Group’s biggest brand in terms of volume is Bali Catamarans, which supplies high-quality, robust catamarans designed to be enjoyed by a large spectrum of customers with a variety of needs and skills. Catana Catamarans, meanwhile, is the company’s oldest brand, manufacturing each year a low number of bespoke high-performance, high-specification catamarans for some of the world’s most demanding clients. The Catana Group’s newest brand is YOT. YOT specialises in building beautiful, luxurious power catamarans which are sold through a dynamic new distribution
network that is generally separate from the Group’s other brands.
Each brand is individually set up to serve unique buyers in unique markets, but all three brands benefit from the Catana Group’s industrial expertise, manufacturing prowess and industry reach.
Beating bluewater
Catana Catamarans was established in 1984. Almost immediately, it became the world’s top manufacturer of fast, high-performance cruising catamarans, producing five to seven hulls a year over the decades that followed.
In 2003, amidst strong emerging growth in global demand for catamarans, sailing enthusiast Olivier Poncin bought Catana Catamarans and quickly set about expanding the company. Catana Catamarans attracted – and continues to attract - a dedicated following of
highly demanding sailors who are drawn to the bluewater capabilities and highperformance characteristics of Catana Catamarans, amongst other aspects. But the company soon found that the same qualities that made Catana Catamarans attractive to its target market, also made them unsuitable for a wider, more casual sailing audience, particularly that of the massive charter market.
Breaking the rules
Consequently, in 2014 Olivier made a bold decision to launch a completely new brand aimed squarely at the charter market.
“He decided to design a brand new, very ambitious product that would break all the rules of catamaran design,” explained Boris Compagnon, Sales & Marketing Director for the Catana Group.
Given that Bali Yachts were conceptualised to meet the needs of charter clients,
the first Bali yacht would offer design and engineering elements specifically aimed at more casual sailors. According to Mr Compagnon, these included “more space, more value, more ventilation and a solid foredeck.”
The yacht’s uniquely solid, integrated foredeck (instead of the trampolines typically found on catamarans at the time), flowed into a large common space between the saloon and the aft cockpit, closed off with a tilting garage-style door for accessing that area.
The design saw almost overnight success with the charter market. “We started producing fifteen boats a year, and today we’re producing between 300 and 350,” said Mr Compagnon. “The Bali yacht was the perfect solution for the mass and charter markets. These markets typically use the boat for 25 miles a day, sailing
from one bay to another. The guests want to chill. They are not doing 100 or 250 miles per day.”
High growth in high volume
Since its launch in 2014, Bali Yachts has enjoyed annual growth of between 30% and 50%, which brings its own unique set of industrial challenges. “The growth has been a huge challenge for the entire team, at every level and every department, from Human Resources to R & D, supply, production and sales,” Mr Compagnon noted. Mr Compagnon credited the Catana Group’s corporate structure with Bali’s ability to move fast enough to keep up with its growth: “Our major strength is our flexibility. As a family-owned company, with a board of only eight people, we can make decisions within minutes. That’s our flexibility; that’s our strength.”
Indeed, after Olivier Poncin sadly passed away in 2023, his son Aurelien proudly took over the reins, leading the Catana Group’s 1,400 employees to continued success in this fast-moving market.
Selling to sailors worldwide
Today, 50% of Bali’s production is credited to the charter market, while the remainder of its production is purchased by private owners. “We have noticed that once people have tried a Bali yacht on a charter, they often want to privately own a boat like that, too,” said Mr Compagnon. “So, while Bali was originally a charter boat, today, at least 50 per cent of our orders come from private owners from our distribution network.”
In the meantime, Catana Catamarans continues to draw dedicated sailors seeking a boutique sales experience and the world-class customer service for which Catana Catamarans is famous. Building twelve yachts a year, Catana
Catamarans works directly with each owner to tailor the yacht specifically for that owner’s individual needs.
While the Catana Group celebrates its 40th anniversary, Bali Yachts is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the launch of its latest model: the Bali 5.8.
Within its 18-metre length and 9-metre beam, the Bali 5.8 is the company’s new flagship and offers 20% more interior space than traditional catamarans of the same size. In addition to its spacious accommodation, the Bali 5.8 offers a variety of spaces and features designed to maximise onboard relaxation, comfort and ease of use. This exciting new model will be on display for the first time at the 2024 Cannes Yachting Festival.
In late April 2024, the Group opened its brand new 20,000sqm factory in Portugal. This high-tech new facility has been developed specifically to build its YOT brand products. “Within less than ten years, we expect YOT to produce the
same turnover that we achieve with our combined sailing yacht products,” Mr Compagnon said. “The new factory is a huge investment for us, but we believe in the market and ultimately, we want to be the global catamaran specialists.”
Concluding, Mr Compagnon reflected on his passion for the fast-moving catamaran market: “I love trying to read what the market will look like tomorrow. What is the next big thing? How will boats be used?
I love the fact that the trend in charter is to make the sea, and the pleasure of being at sea, accessible to most people.” n
