New YachtWorld Market Index Features Detailed Geographic Breakdown of European Markets
Norfolk, VA – (January 7, 2015) – Boats Group (Boats Group), a division of Dominion
Enterprises, has included a new detailed geographic breakdown of European boat markets in its
latest YachtWorld Market Index for Q4 of 2014. The report shows significant variations between
European countries, but a very positive picture for Europe as a whole, with cumulative yacht
brokerage sales and total sold values rising by double-digit percentages for 2014.
The latest edition of the Index will be unveiled at the Dusseldorf Boat Show this week, with its
extended range of data and commentary providing an ever deeper insight into the nuances of
the U.S. and European markets. As usual, the data for the report was derived from
Soldboats.com, the proprietary database in which both U.S. and European members of
YachtWorld record their sales.
YachtWorld Editorial Director John Burnham commented: “It was very interesting putting
together this report for Q4 of 2014 and seeing the cumulative data for the year as a whole.
Because of the significant variations within different US regions and European countries
throughout 2014, we decided to provide a range of additional data for this annual-report edition.
We included a breakdown of eight different regions for the U.S. and Canada, and in Europe for
the first time we split out the six main markets – the U.K., Spain, France, Netherlands, Italy and
Germany – which together accounted for approximately 89% of all boats reported sold by
YachtWorld members in Europe as a whole.”
Strong sales in December capped a solid fourth quarter for European yacht brokers, with sales
up 21% in the quarter and 10% for 2014 as a whole. The U.K. was a big player in these figures,
with 50% of the reported transactions in 2014 being for boats sold in the U.K. Spain ranked
second in European brokerage sales with 11% of total boats sold, followed by France and the
Netherlands which both had 9%. France also had the highest total value of sales at €412 million
– up from €340 million in 2013, and Italy retained its number 2 position in total sales value with
€351 million, up from €282 million in 2013.
John Burnham added: “I hope our customers will find the extra content in this latest edition of
the YachtWorld Market Index gives a clearer understanding the strong progress the industry has
made over the past year, and the areas where it can still improve. We’ll continue to look at ways
of extending the range of data the report provides to offer the most detailed quarterly insights on
the US and European yacht brokerage markets.”
About Boats Group
Boats Group (Boats Group) is the leading partner of the recreational marine industry,
offering comprehensive digital business solutions including the world’s largest marine web
portals: YachtWorld, boats.com, Cosas de Barcos and U.S.-based Boat Trader. In 2013, more
than 52 million unique visitors spent time researching products on Boats Group web and mobile sites,
apps and social media outlets. Boats Group’s global reach includes 23 localized web portals which are
translated into 13 languages. With offices in North America (Norfolk, Virginia; Seattle,
Washington; and Vancouver, British Columbia), as well as in Europe (United Kingdom,
Germany, Spain and Italy), and customers in 106 countries, Boats Group is a global organization that
strives to bring the boating industry to the forefront of the digital world.
Boats Group is a division of Dominion Enterprises, a leading marketing services and publishing
company that provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of technology-based marketing
and business solutions including dealer management software, online advertising, lead
generation, CRM, website design and hosting and data management services.