GYG, the market leading superyacht painting, supply and maintenance company, today provides the following trade update for the year ended 31 December 2019. GYG’s board is pleased to report that the group’s trading performance has improved and, as a result, now expects its results for the year ended 31 December 2019 to be comfortably ahead of the board’s previous expectations.

According to GYG's trading update, 2019 has been a transformational year for the group in which significant progress has been made in strengthening its order book and improving forward visibility. The group has continued to gain market share in the new build sector, with six new builds signed in the year and more recently an 80m yacht scheduled to start in Q4 2020, further reducing the impact of the refit market's seasonality. The refit market continues to improve, with the new facilities in Barcelona and Savannah in the US, contributing to a record number of projects signed.

“2019 was a transformational year for the group and I am delighted that we have such a strong, record order book going into 2020, providing more visibility than ever before. Aside from being busy winning contracts, we have also made significant changes in all areas of the organisation, improving our operational efficiencies,” comments Remy Millott, CEO of GYG. “The team is fully focused on further enhancing margins and the quality of earnings for the year ahead. I believe we are in a strong position to continue our growth in this segment as the market leader and I look forward to fully updating shareholders at the Group’s Final Results in April 2020.” 

GYG’s total order book in January 2020 stands at €44.4m, which is 31 per cent ahead of January 2019 (€33.9m). The order book for 2020 is currently €32.8m, which a 30 per cent increase when compared to the 2019 order book at the same point in the year (€25.3m).

“Various factors contributed to 2019 being a turnaround year. We made a number of changes to the organisation, which included Rupert Savage becoming commercial director and dedicating himself to business development, we began to successfully deliver on our new build strategy, the refit market is extremely good at the moment and we are really focussing on the quality of earning and gross margins,” continues Millott. “With a stable order book we are able to forward plan more effectively and organise ourselves in such a way to help grow our margins by becoming more efficient.”

With the order book looking healthy at €44.4m and ample opportunity to grow the business organically by assuming greater market share in both the refit and new build market, Millott believes that GYG is now in the position to start actively looking for potential acquisitions and investment opportunities.

“Until you start asking the right questions it is hard to know what opportunities are available in the superyacht market because businesses like to keep their cards quite close to their chests,” explains Millott. “We will be looking at businesses that are in line with our core business, it may be interiors, refit-based, new build driven or within the maintenance sphere. So long as the opportunity fits our growth strategy and provides additional market share, then we remain open minded.”

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