Now it's official: the Etap brand has been saved. The Belgian entrepreneur Toni De Pape has released the Etap Yachting shipyard from Dehler's insolvency proceedings and is now relocating production entirely to Szczecin in Poland.
De Pape expects to be able to restart production there by the end of April. The plan is to resume production of all current Etap models unchanged, from the small 21i to the large 46 DS. The moulds and the entire shipyard inventory are currently being shipped to Szczecin by around 100 truckloads from the previous site in Malle (Belgium). However, Etap Yachting's headquarters will remain in Belgium. The dealer network will also remain unchanged for the time being. New models are probably already being considered, but Toni De Pape did not want to be specific yet, not even with regard to further price developments at Etap.
At the same time as production in Szczecin, a shipyard is also to be set up for Etap in India. From there, the new company management intends to supply the markets in India, China and South East Asia in particular. Toni De Pape sees "huge potential for boatbuilding" in these countries and also draws parallels with developments in the automotive industry.
Etap Yachting was only taken over by Dehler in January 2008. However, the insolvency of the German yacht builder in autumn last year also dragged the Belgian shipyard company into the crisis. Etap had to file for insolvency on 7 January 2009.
