March 2021 update on the Covid-19 situation
Dear Friends and Family of HanseYachts AG,
Covid-19 impacts are slowly getting stronger and effecting businesses all across Europe. We will use this place on our website to frequently inform our customers, partners, and shareholders about the effect the current situation has on our corporate group.
Corona infections:
Since February 26, 2021, we have had no recorded infections at our facilities. We will continue with strong measures to help prevent any further infections. One of our colleagues is ill since early November, but recovering. We wish him and his family all the best. The City of Greifswald’s preventive measures are effective, with only 47 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In Poland, we only have a few workers with positive tests. The rate of new Covid-19 infections in Poland is generally higher than in Germany, so we are quite okay with this level.
At our French facility, we have zero infections among 150 employees. This is an excellent result, and we hope this continues. At the present time, production is not slowed down due to the impact of Covid-19 on our labour force.
Market:
In the last twelve months, 67% of boat shows were cancelled. The newest cancellations or delays concern Dubai International Boat Show, Eriksberg Boat Show in Sweden, Palma Boat Show in Spain, British Motor Yacht Show, and Barclays Jersey Boat Show in UK.
The next planned shows, which were not cancelled so far, are: China (Shanghai) International Boat Show, Yachting Festivals Athens (Greece), Japan International Boat Show and Bay Bridge Boat Show (USA) in April.
Despite the lack of shows, we continue to have very strong sales in all regions. We are sold out more or less until September 2021, for some models even for the full calendar year 2021. Privilège catamarans are sold out for even longer. Customers looking for new boats for next season (spring 2022) should reserve their building slot earlier than usual.
Production:
The impact of Covid-19 on our production lines is challenging. Parts today need longer to cross boarders from the UK and Austria (which means for us, that also goods coming from Italy, Croatia and Slovenia are at risk) and Czechoslovakia. On top of this, we currently have a number of suppliers, that are facing their own supply chain interruptions.
The most important of these is Volvo Penta, which reports longer lead times for D4 and D6 engines. Affected are our Sealine and FJORD diesel boats between 39 and 44 feet. We could replace all non-IPS versions with either Yanmar motors and drives or Cummins motors with Konrad drives. Sealine and FJORD dealers are informing their customers now and in the upcoming weeks accordingly, as not all Volvo orders were impacted.
Other less critical part delays causing disruptions are bow thrusters 24V for 40 days and upholstery with no new delivery times so far. The effect of missing and delayed parts create delays for our customers and delays of shipping for our dealers. At Hanse we have to store 99% finished boats, and we need a lot of space for such huge products. All affected boats will go back into production a second time, where we must find a space outside the line of production to finish them. This means extra costs to handle this process and no revenue in our books with boats not being 100% finished. However, in the future a lot of revenue will appear suddenly, when all parts are there and boats can be completed. There has been no impact on our cash situation, as we are having a historically high liquidity. To improve this situation and handle the extra hours we have increased our recruiting efforts with eleven new employees in Poland, nine in Germany and five in France along with some part-time employees. We wish our new colleagues success!
We apologize for the inconvenience as a result of the continued restraints our manufacturing faces.
With this round-up of our latest news, we wish you farewell until next time.
Stay healthy and see you on the water!
From the team at HanseYachts AG,
Dr. Jens Gerhardt and Sven Göbel
