OCEANIS 331

The historic French shipyard Bénéteau was founded in 1884 in Croix de Vie by Benjamin Bénéteau. At the very beginning, the shipyard manufactured fishing boats called chalutiers. Since the ‘60s, the shipyard started to produce pleasure boats and it has now become the undisputed world leader in the manufacture of sailboats, as well as one of the top five manufacturers of motor yachts in th world. In the 90s, a business strategy aimed at acquiring several important shipyards led to the creation of Bénéteau Group. Among the most prestigious acquisitions we find the following brands: CNB (production of yachts between 60’ and 94’); Jeanneau (sailboats); Prestige line (motor yachts) Lagoon (very famous brands for catamarans) and Monte Carlo Yachts (motor yachts between 65’ and 105’).