Minnesota's Your Boat Club sells 40% stake to French boat manufacturer

Luke Kujawa, president of Crystal Pierz Marine, was already thinking about boat clubs and rentals when his parents decided to sell the boat retail operation to Bass Pro Shops in 2009.

Kujawa launched Minneapolis-based Your Boat Club with a business partner in 2010. It has since become the largest privately-owned boat club in the world, offering more than 300 fishing boats and ski boats at 24 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Last month, Kujawa accepted a multimillion-dollar investment from Groupe Beneteau, a French boat manufacturer, for a 40% stake in YBC.

The deal may be a precursor to an acquisition of YBC, but for now it is designed to accelerate YBC's growth.

"Anything could happen down the line," Kujawa, 48, said last week. "For now, we have been picked [by Groupe Beneteau] to lead the growth in this space."

Group Beneteau paid nearly $50 million for three acquisitions, including YBC, according to a recent financial disclosure. The sale price implies a value of YBC of less than $50 million.

"We've watched Your Boat Club create a smart forward-thinking business model and then implement and grow it very effectively," Jerome de Metz, chief executive of Groupe Beneteau, said in a statement.

"Not only does the concept play very well with our strategic direction, but we also recognized great synergy with the YBC culture and leadership," de Metz said. "We're thrilled to be working in tandem to get more people engaged in hassle-free boating."

Group Beneteau, which makes and sells myriad brands, just raised its 2021 full-year revenue and income targets and posted first-half revenue of $782 million. The order book for its boating business is up 55% to $2.1 billion over June 2020.

Kujawa saw the boating industry swing wildly during cycles for years in the family business. He and his team have built a strong regional-club model, including rentals, service and storage, that mitigates the cost of boating and adds variety for members.

"This collaboration ... will allow us to create expanded opportunities, locations and product availability for our customers while scaling our business in a responsible and strategic manner," Kujawa said. "We'll continue to get more people on the water to enjoy the boating lifestyle without any of the hassle."

The investment will allow YBC to expand into growth markets throughout the United States, including along the East Coast, to the New York Finger Lakes region and the east and west coasts of Florida.

Boat dealers in the past have viewed clubs and rentals as competition. However, the club model, albeit not cheap, consumes boats that otherwise might not move when the only alternative is spending up to $100,000 or more for luxury motorboats and pontoons.

"Group Beneteau wants to engage in this [club trend] because as customers change, the kids grow up and life patterns change, it's about different offerings," Kujawa said. "Many boat dealers in the past have been anti-clubs. But any way we can attract families to boating, we all win."

The boat-club-and-rental business is growing faster than the overall marine market.

YBC last year provided 35,000 boat trips. This year should be 40,000. It's approaching 2,000 memberships. And memberships permit up to four drivers. Memberships start about $2,000 a year. The average membership for unlimited boating is around $5,000 a year for sizable boats and luxury pontoons.

Boat clubs can be more economical, stress-free and offer more variety to members.

YBC has produced a raft of video and other testimonials from former boat owners who don't miss the cost of maintenance, cleaning and storage, on top of buying a boat.

It's also great to get off a boat and have somebody else clean it, cover it and worry about preparing it for the next outing.

However, YBC and other boat clubs mostly limit operations to daytime hours and there's little room for impromptu trips because boats are usually reserved well in advance.

Of course, some folks just like to own boats. And one person's pain-in-the-bow to deal with maintenance, insurance, trailering and storage is a fair exchange for others who want their own boat for use whenever and wherever they see fit.

Moreover, YBC sells a third of its boat fleet annually, typically after two or three years of use, to members and others who want their own rigs. It's a lot cheaper to buy well-maintained and refurbished used models with verifiable maintenance records.

Kujawa said YBC is approaching $20 million in revenue this year.

He said Group Beneteau will expand YBC's boat offerings, including electric-powered boats that are growing in popularity with the environmental-boating set.