Sunseeker International is a Chinese owned British luxury performance motor yacht brand. Originally named Poole Power Boats, the company was founded by brothers Robert and John Braithwaite in 1969. The company changed its name to Sunseeker International in 1985 and has since become a global icon. Its headquarters and main assembly facility is in Poole Harbour, at

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

in Dorset, England. Chinese

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

Dalian Wanda Group has owned the company since 2013. It is the largest UK-based luxury yacht maker measured by 2012 revenues.

Profile

Corporate information

The main operating company's (Sunseeker International Limited, company number 00675320) registered office is Sunseeker House, West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1JD. Sunseeker describes the nature of its business using the Standard Industrial Classification number 30110: 'Building of ships and floating structures'. A holding company, Sunseeker International (Holdings) Limited, was founded in 2006 using an

off-the-shelf company A shelf corporation, shelf company, or aged corporation is a company or corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity – metaphorically put on the "shelf" to "age". The company can then be sold to a person or gr ...

. There are other companies in the group, including specialist entities for chartering and mouldings manufacturing. Debt financing is provided to the group by

HSBC Bank plc HSBC UK Bank plc is a British multinational banking and financial services organisation based in Birmingham, England. It is part of HSBC Holdings. HSBC UK Bank plc is one of the four major clearing banks in the United Kingdom and is a wholly ...

through a revolving credit facility agreement originally dated 8 July 2015, as subsequently amended and restated, pursuant to which the group has mortgaged and charged various assets, including (inter alios) its

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s, intellectual property, and goodwill.

Industrial profile

Manufacturing is undertaken mainly in

, in seven production plants and

s where it employs c. 2,600 people and produces around 150 boats every year ranging from 38–161 feet. An additional deep-water shipyard is used to build the 105 yacht and larger vessels. In March 2007, the company announced a 500 job expansion program, with a new site on the Isle of Portland, Poole is also home to Sunseeker's dedicated Design & Technology Centre, a unique facility which vertically integrates every detail of the yachts from the initial concept designs through to the finishing details including furniture, complex electrical systems, helm consoles and soft furnishings. As Sunseeker produces these components in its own dedicated facility, it is able to offer exceptionally high quality control, craftmanship and attention to detail.

History

In October 2002, Robert Braithwaite, the founder of Sunseeker International, was named Ernst & Young's UK Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2006 Robert Braithwaite led a £44 million MBO of the company, backed by Bank of Scotland. The company features in the 2008 ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' list Profit Track 100 of the most profitable non-listed companies and in the Top Track 250 list of mid-sized non-listed companies. In 2010, Irish private equity firm FL Partners took over ownership of Sunseeker through a debt restructuring deal after Sunseeker posted losses the previous year. On 19 June 2013 it was announced that the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group had agreed to buy a 91.8% stake in Sunseeker for £320M. As reported, it has been promised that the day-to-day running of Sunseeker in Poole will be unaffected, with its 2,500-strong workforce keeping their jobs. The deal is set to be sealed by mid-August. In January 2015,

Phil Popham Phil Popham is a British Business man who has mainly been employed in the automotive industry. He had a long career at Jaguar Land Rover, and latterly was the chief executive officer of Lotus Cars. He has also been CEO of Sunseeker during his ...

was appointed as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. In June 2019, Sunseeker announced that Andrea Frabetti, formerly Chief Technical Officer at Sunseeker, replaced Christian Marti as CEO. Prior to his time at Sunseeker, Frabetti worked at Italian superyacht manufacturer

Ferretti Group Ferretti S.p.A. (trading as Ferretti Group) is an Italian multinational shipbuilding company headquartered in Forlì which specialises in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor yachts. Its products are sold under the brands Ferretti ...

for over 25 years, including time as vice president of product development, as well as at Diesel Center SPA as CEO. Marti came on board as Sunseeker’s CEO in November 2018 following the departure of Phil Popham.

Appearance in popular culture

Sunseeker boats have featured in the James Bond film series since '' The World Is Not Enough'' (1999), chasing up the Thames in the pre-credits sequence, and continued through '' Die Another Day'' (2002), '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and ''

Quantum of Solace ''Quantum of Solace'' is a 2008 spy film and the twenty-second in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sequel to Casino Royale (2006 film), ''Casino Royale'' (2006). Directed by Marc Forst ...

'' (2008). This latest outing showed Sunseeker's new 37m Yacht and the Superhawk 43; it also featured a cameo role for Sunseeker's then managing director, Robert Braithwaite, in one of Sunseeker's very first open-cockpit speedboats, the Sovereign 17. A

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

documentary about the brand, ''Britain's Biggest Superyachts: Chasing Perfection'', shows the building of the Sunseeker 131 yacht. In the feature film ''

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gover ...

'', James ( Wolverine) is shown trying to secure money to buy a Sunseeker and live with Charles Xavier and Caliban on the ocean.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Poole Yacht building companies British companies established in 1969 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in England Shipbuilding companies of England Dalian Wanda Group British subsidiaries of foreign companies