Najad Managing Director Alfred van Wincoop is expanding. Following the completion of his new GRP production facility in Åmål, Sweden, he intends to offer three brands in future and thus utilise production capacity. In addition to Najad, these will be Aphrodite and Maxi, all three recognised and established names in Scandinavian boatbuilding for decades.
The announcement comes as no surprise. Maxi Yachts, which started a promising reorientation a few years ago under its boss Pehr Edström and was nominated for the title of European Yacht of the Year with the Maxi 1300, recently lacked support in-house.
The formerly important shipyard belonged to Nimbus, a large motorboat manufacturer, for 18 years. The latter wants to concentrate entirely on its core business in future and has therefore curbed its efforts to promote Maxi. As a result, Najad is likely to have obtained moulds, trademark rights and designs cheaply.
In addition to Maxi, the shipyard in Henan on the island of Orust near Gothenburg will also be launching a model programme under the name Aphrodite. It will be aimed at owners who appreciate classic style elements. Van Wincoop intends to utilise the old shapes of the Najad 380, 460 and 511 and upgrade them with a mahogany cabin superstructure; below deck, designer Dick Young will create a decidedly traditional interior. In this way, the shipyard wants to take the retro-classic trend into account. The Aphrodite brand name has been owned by Najad for some time, but has never been reactivated until now.
In future, all boats will be manufactured directly at Najad. Purchasing, marketing, sales, accounting, customer service and related areas will also be centralised, van Wincoop announced. The Dutch-born financial expert, who has only been at the helm of the renowned shipyard for three years, hopes that this will reduce costs. Nevertheless, these savings will not be passed on to customers in the form of more favourable prices. On the contrary: "We will improve the equipment and raise the prices," van Wincoop announced to YACHT.
With the founding of Linnea Yachts, consolidation in international boatbuilding is accelerating. Etap was only taken over by Dehler in January. Further acquisitions are on the horizon.
Of course, even with its future three-brand strategy, Najad will remain a small niche provider in the premium segment. The Scandinavians will not produce more than 100 to 150 boats even in the medium term. This means that they will not reach what many market observers consider to be the critical threshold of 500 to 1000 boats per year, above which significant economies of scale can only be achieved.
