Shortly before Christmas 2019, the Fora Marine shipyard in La Rochelle with the well-known RM Yachts brand had to file for insolvency. The debt burden was apparently no longer sustainable for the medium-sized company. For the time being, the business was continued by a legal representative, but production was focussed on outstanding completions. Many of the 45 employees had to stay at home with uncertain prospects.
Now they can breathe a sigh of relief: the Grand Large Yachting group, based in Tourlaville near Cherbourg, will take over the shipyard and the brand rights of RM Yachts and restart the production of RM yachts. In addition to Grand Large Yachting, a second group led by the former RM product manager Maxime Védrenne has also submitted a takeover bid. On Thursday morning, the commercial court in Bordeaux made the final decision: Grand Large will be awarded the contract.
Grand Large Yachting is the fourth largest group of companies in the nautical sector in France, after Beneteau, Fountaine Pajot and the Catana Group. Grand Large includes the Allures and Garcia brands, which build blue-water yachts suitable for the open sea from aluminium. The group also includes the Outremer and Gunboat brands with their upmarket, sporty catamarans. Grand Large was founded in 2003 by Stéphane Constance and Xavier Desmarest and today has several production sites in Normandy, on the French Atlantic coast and on the Mediterranean.
It will be interesting to see how and in what form Grand Large Yachting integrates the RM Yachts brand into its extensive, but also rather niche-orientated portfolio. RM Yachts is known for its unusual design with plywood hulls and GRP decks. With the new RM 1180, the yacht builders in La Rochelle made a much-noticed and promising start to a new model generation last year. YACHT presented the exciting boat in a test in issue 20/2019.
