Sunseeker International is a Chinese owned British luxury performance motor

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

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 in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

conglomerate

Dalian Wanda Group Wanda Group (), or the Dalian Wanda Group (), is a Chinese multinational conglomerate founded in Dalian, Liaoning and headquartered in Beijing. It is a private property developer and owner of Wanda Cinemas and the Hoyts Group. With invest ...

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 The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code as a method of standardizing industry classification for statistical purposes across agencies. Established in the United States in 1937, i ...

number 30110: 'Building of ships and floating structures'. A

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

, Sunseeker International (Holdings) Limited, was founded in 2006 using an off-the-shelf company. 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 through a

revolving credit Revolving credit is a type of credit that does not have a fixed number of payments, in contrast to installment credit. Credit cards are an example of revolving credit used by consumers. Corporate revolving credit facilities are typically used to ...

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 shipyards,

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

, and goodwill.

Industrial profile

Manufacturing is undertaken mainly in Poole, in seven production plants and shipyards 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 An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct fr ...

, 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 Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

's UK Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2006 Robert Braithwaite led a £44 million MBO of the company, backed by

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

. The company features in the 2008 '' Sunday Times'' list

Profit Track 100 The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 is an annual league table published in association with The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain’s 100 private companies with the fastest-growing profits over their last three years. It is publis ...

of the most profitable non-listed companies and in the

Top Track 250 The Sunday Times Top Track 250 is an annual league table published in association with ''The Sunday Times'' newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain’s private mid-market growth companies with the biggest sales. It is published in ''The Sunday Ti ...

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 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 The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film series since ''

The World Is Not Enough ''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Michael Apted, from an ...

'' (1999), chasing up the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in the pre-credits sequence, and continued through ''

Die Another Day ''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film st ...

'' (2002), '' Casino Royale'' (2006) and '' Quantum of Solace'' (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 documentary about the brand, ''Britain's Biggest Superyachts: Chasing Perfection'', shows the building of the Sunseeker 131 yacht. In the feature film '' Logan'', James (

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

) is shown trying to secure money to buy a Sunseeker and live with

Charles Xavier Professor X (Charles Francis Xavier) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as the founder and sometimes leader of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co- ...

and

Caliban Caliban ( ), son of the witch Sycorax, is an important character in William Shakespeare's play '' The Tempest''. His character is one of the few Shakespearean figures to take on a life of its own "outside" Shakespeare's own work: as Russell H ...

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