Beneteau is Changing Things
Wellcraft 355 – that brand’s current models steer an Axopar-ish course
June 25, 2026
The tastes of boaters going in some new directions and Beneteau, the very large French-based builder, is heading its fleet to meet those modern flavours. As reported in Boote, a prominent European source and elsewhere, Groupe Beneteau is responding to the ongoing decline in demand in the US market with a radical move by ceasing production at its Cadillac Michigan plant and intends to sell the Four Winns, Glastron and Scarab Jet brands. These three brands have reportedly incurred losses running into millions over the past two years.
With this closure, it appears Beneteau intends to focus its resources on its remaining seven brands. These include Beneteau, Jeanneau, Prestige, Excess, Lagoon, Wellcraft and Delphia. In 2026, Beneteau will launch 24 new models, following 23 new launches the previous year. Retail sales rose in the first quarter of 2026.
Powerboating Canadians have already started to gravitate toward European tastes based on what we saw at the winter boat shows when the crowds favored the Axopar and similar Scandinavian models as well as Euro-look Beneteau and Juneau boats. Newer Wellcraft models have an Axopar resemblance, so they are staying.
Beneteau likely knows what they are doing – that’s why they’re the big fish. They acquired a number of American legacy brands around a decade ago and perhaps even then planned to kill them off.
A bit of history – in 1990 Beneteau and then Juneau sailboats arrived in North America and pummeled our once-powerful Canadian sail builders to extinction by creating new levels of interior space and style. Today, there may be few people who won’t appreciate the decline of once ubiquitous US power brands and the factories that build them, but it’s happening. The sail community got through it; now it’s power’s turn.
John Morris, Online Editor
