Beneteau or Bénéteau (French pronunciation: [beneto]) is a French sail and motorboat manufacturer, with production facilities in France and in the United States.[1] The company is a large and recognized boat builder, with its holding company (Groupe Beneteau) now also holding other prestigious brands, such as Jeanneau and its multihull subsidiary Lagoon in 1995.

History

Shipwright Benjamin Bénéteau [fr] founded the company[2][3] in 1884, at Croix-de-Vie, France to build sailing trawlers.[4] In the mid sixties, Benjamin’s grandchildren Annette Bénéteau Roux[5] and her brother André Bénéteau introduced a line of fiberglass boats.

Production

The main production facility is in France, with five factories in the Vendée area. However, they have one US plant in Marion, South Carolina, which produces boats for the American market and opened in 1986.[6] Since then, the factory has nearly doubled in size to about 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2). By May 2017, the Marion plant had built more than 8,700 boats.[7] The Marion plant was closed in September 2020 and production was moved to the existing facilities in France.[8]