Sunseeker’s new 45-metre project

Over the past few years, this iconic and quintessential British brand has endured some turbulent waters and unstable conditions; however, having met with some of the management team last week at the Cannes Yachting Festival it feels like calmer waters are on the horizon.

Sunseeker International and now Sunseeker Europe have been hitting the headlines with a fleet of announcements, including their new leadership teams, the commitment of stable investors, shifts in the sales strategy and dealer network, a newly refined portfolio of projects, a re-entry into the superyacht market and some tweaks and adjustments to their brand device and customer touch points.

Let’s start with the new management team, soon to be officially led by the CEO, Scott Millar, who we hope to meet this week in Monaco. With a background in the financial world and essentially managing company restructuring, this is not the first time we have seen this type of CEO take the helm of a yacht business. But around Scott is a team of automotive manufacturing specialists, ex-board members from competitors in the yacht game and some highly experienced technical and commercial team members from within Sunseeker or from the previous Sunseeker sales and distribution network.

Scott Millar, the new CEO at Sunseeker

The Sunseeker Europe deal was interesting to watch, an almost strategic move that you’d expect from the financial and restructuring world: influence the collapse of your major sales outlet and dealer by renegotiating their terms to the point of no return and then execute a pre-pack deal to acquire the juicy bits from the administrator and create a new company, with more internal control. It’s going to be interesting to see the outcome, as many other similar yards have explored new strategies for their dealer networks and customer management, bringing more control closer to the shipyard and managing the warranty period in a smarter way. It makes sense and if the numbers work, this should help Sunseeker International stabilise their customers and future relationships.

When a company launches a new brand identity, there are inherent risks, especially one with such heritage and pedigree, and with owners and dealers wedded to the logo on all of their merchandise and existing yachts. However, Sunseeker’s announcement of the appointment of ex-Benetti and Sanlorenzo Mario Giornati as CMO was a reassuring move and one that would obviously bring a smarter and cleaner approach. The result was to be expected: less distraction and more energy and sophistication to the brand, with the dramatic – for some – and logical removal of the racing pedigree nod, the laurel leaves. What surprised me most with this brand relaunch was the arrival of a bold new brand statement, “the original mavericks”, a message that shouted loud above the newly designed Cannes stand with confidence and pride. This had much more impact than the new logo, which was subtle and refined. Perhaps this brand word “maverick” will also apply to the new management team at the helm of Sunseeker, a team of people willing to think differently, take risks and push boundaries. 

The reveal of the all-new 45-metre Sunseeker is obviously interesting when considering the number of clients in the 30-metre sector they already have and with nowhere for them to upgrade to, apart from many of their Italian competitors.

Finally, and what I was waiting for, was the announcement of the renewed focus on the superyacht sector, a space the company vacated quietly over the past few years for a variety of reasons, many widely known to those in the industry. The reveal of the all-new 45-metre Sunseeker is obviously interesting when considering the number of clients in the 30-metre sector they already have and with nowhere for them to upgrade to, apart from many of their Italian competitors. The concept, developed in house will be a long-term project that will be built starting in latter stages of 2027 and delivered some 20 plus months later as they want to bring a new Sunseeker superyacht benchmark to the fore. A truly bespoke British superyacht, with British design, British engineering and British pedigree, the pinnacle of Sunseeker ownership and with such a wide network of brand loyal clients, one would expect a few letters of intent to be signed during this year’s Monaco Yacht Show.

With so much happening across the shipyard, management team, branding, design team, sales team and an exciting portfolio of new projects on the table, even though they have now removed the laurel leaves from the brand name, it is clear that they have not been resting on them. After Monaco I plan to make the trip down to Poole to take a closer look at what’s happening at this important UK-based shipyard and employer.

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