Emerald Star-owner Le Boat has entered a 10-year supply agreement partnership with mainland European boating group Groupe Beneteau to invest more than £100m in its international fleet.
The partnership will be between Le Boat – which is active in Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Canada – and Delphia, Groupe Beneteau’s brand in Poland.
The deal will ensure travellers have an even greater range of options to choose from when planning their self-drive boating holidays and provides innovation to the current charter market as it stands. Of the 400 new Delphia boats slated to be built over the coming decade for Le Boat, 100 will be made in the next three years, including at least 25 in 2025.
These orders will be a combination of the current Horizon range, plus 34 of a premium new one to two cabin boat, aptly named “Liberty” which will be launched in 2025. As part of the Luxury range, designed for premium comfort, these new superior boats will be found on the canals and water ways of France including, Brittany, Lot, Alsace, Burgundy, Loire-Nivernais, Midi and the Camargue as well as the Thames, Germany and the Netherlands.
In addition, the two industry leaders will also be developing a new industry-leading three to four cabin model for launch in 2027. This new model will be designed in collaboration with Le Boat and will have both private and charter variants; the charter version will be exclusive to Le Boat. They will include full air conditioning, a superior fly bridge and provide the most premium boating experience on the waterways.
As part of this supply agreement, Delphia and LeBoat are also working to expand into the North American market using an innovative partnership that will allow for the development of new fleets and new locations for both charter holidays and boat sales.
Speaking about the development, Cheryl Brown, Le Boat’s Managing Director, said: “We’re delighted to be building upon our long-standing relationship with Groupe Beneteau to support the next stage of Le Boat’s growth journey. It will allow us to continue developing high quality river cruisers which our customer will love and enable us both to expand into North America. With these innovative new boats and stunning potential cruising grounds, this offers us a fantastic opportunity to grow both the charter and boat sales sides of our business.”
