Oyster Yachts : the state of the art

The year 2024 marks a decisive turning point in the revitalization process of the Oyster Yachts brand.
Forecasts speak of a return to the last as early as this year.

For Oyster Yachts, the UK’s leading builder of blue water sailing yachts , 2024 will be a pivotal year in the brand’s revitalization and redevelopment strategy, which began in 2018 with the acquisition of the company by entrepreneur (and Oyster owner) Richard Hadida.

After the initial investment of 6 million pounds to save the yard, Hadida has worked hard over the past five years to reorganize all the company’s activities, improve the product range, make the production facilities more efficient, and improve customer service with a global service network.

Having overcome the difficulties imposed by the pandemic, which inevitably produced a slowdown in the revitalization strategy, Hadida has since invested £14.5 million to support working capital, new model production, and the ongoing rebuilding of the brand.

All these investments now form the premise for Oyster Yacht Holdings (OYH) and its subsidiaries to return to profits for the current year, supported by a solid order book, an efficient production system as well as the success of theOyster World Rally which, as Ashley Highfield, CEO and former president of Oyster Yachts, is keen to point out, has already sold out in terms of participation for the 2026-27 edition and promises big numbers for the 2028/29 edition as well, for which the shipyard has already announced that only 30 participants will be admitted.

Unique to Oyster, the Oyster World Rally is a circumnavigation of the globe covering an impressive 27 thousand nautical miles, 27 countries and 16 months.
The initiative, exclusively for Oyster owners, includes personalized assistance by Oyster’s logistics, technical and concierge staff for the duration of the crossing.

The Rally has a direct positive impact on Ouster Yachts’ order book, as many of the participating boats are specifically requested by the shipyard to participate in the event.
In fact, for the 2026-27 edition alone, 16 of the 32 participating boats have been purchased to participate in the initiative.
Similarly, the shipyard has built 11 of the 22 boats that will take part in the 2024-25 edition.

“The 2028-29 edition of our World Rally ,” explains Highlight. will be open to 30 participants and, to date, 9 boats have already confirmed their presence.
This number, which is still small, is closely related to the difficulty of some marinas to accommodate the boats, but we are nevertheless considering the possibility of promoting new rallies of which, however, we prefer not to give any advance notice at the moment.”

The prospect of a return to profits for the current year was highlighted in a recent company note, based on the latest financial data for January 2024, and filed by Oyster Yachts at the conclusion of the fiscal year on March 31, 2024.

Highfield confirms an increase in turnover in the first quarter of 2024 to 56.4 million pounds compared to only 20 million pounds recorded in the first year after the acquisition.
Added to this are:

A 29 percent increase in revenue to 56.4 million pounds compared to 43.6 million in fiscal year 2021-2022;

A gross profit of 1.5 million pounds in FY 2022-23 versus 5.4 million in FY 2021-22 (-72%);

A post-investment operating loss (£16.8 million) in FY2022-23      accounts compared to £8.8 million in FY2021-22, down 91 percent from the      previous year;

An EBITDA ratio of 15.1 million pounds for fiscal year 2022-2023 compared with 7.6 million (-98%) in the previous year;

A liquid balance of 3.5 million pounds in FY2022-2023 compared to 5.6 million pounds in FY2021-2022 (down 37 percent).