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A unique opportunity to purchase a boating business AND a freehold three bedroom property...

Reason for Sale

  

The Fleet

Keith and Margaret are retiring after 37 years in the boating industry in France.

Day Boats is a pioneer in the day launch industry and has been operating in Brittany for 17 seasons.

The website address for the business is
www.day-boats.com.

  

The boats were built on the Norfolk Broads to an excellent standard (Bounty Boats, Brundall, Norwich) and are fitted with Lynch 12 volt electric motors. All are well maintained and in impeccable condition.

The boatyard has a ''Droit d'Occupation'' (issued by La Gacilly Town Hall) over 20 linear metres of pontoon moorings and two specifically designated individual 4 socket charging posts, for which the annual rental fee is 500 euros. Included in this annual rental fee is the site for the kiosk.


Keith and Margaret at work

  


The Day Boats fleet in La Gacilly

The business does NOT require any specific technical knowledge to run successfully.
Take over and earn your living easily from day one.


The Base

  

The Surroundings

The boats are hired out at La Gacilly, Southern Brittany, Morbihan.

The site at La Gacilly enjoys a perfect location, not only because the town is a well known tourist destination (the home of Yves Rocher cosmetics) but also because it hosts the renowned annual outdoor international photographic exhibition: www.festivalphoto-lagacilly.com

  

The cruising area is lock free and traverses the Nature Reserve of the Ile aux Pies and Basse Vallée de l’Oust.


This unique situation ensures both passing trade and pre-booked reservations, an enviable opportunity to capture both markets.

 


The weir at La Gacilly

  


Cruising the waterways


Present Trading Season

  

Winter Storage

Below are the current trading dates chosen by Keith & Margaret (but purchaser is free to alter and choose their own trading dates and hours):

Mid April – Mid July & 1 – 15 September afternoons only 13.30 – 18.30
Mid July – 30 August  09.30 – 19.00.
Closed 16 September – Mid April.

  

Hard standing available for the fleet to the rear of the freehold property (included in sale), but at present the boats are wintered inside a disused deep litter shed.

Annual dry dock storage has ensured the integrity of the hulls and maintained the fleet in excellent condition.

 


Customers during the La Gacilly flower festival

  


Boat on trailer at house


Business Registration and Accounts

The business is registered at:

GREFFE du Tribunal de Commerce

19 rue des Tribuneax, BP 505, 56019 Vannes

under the number: 320 418 942 00041 No de Gestion 95 A 26

Annual accounts are submitted by Cabinet Abjean, 13 rue le Brun Malard, 56230 Questembert and are available for inspection during your visit to view the business.


Equipment

Click here for a full list of the equipment included in the sale


The House

Click here for details and pictures of the three bedroom freehold property included in the sale


Peace, Harmony, Fulfilment

The purchase of Day Boats® provides the opportunity for a life changing experience.

 

Forget the noise, frustrations, pollution and aggressiveness of life.  Exchange them all for peace and tranquillity in the heart of the French countryside.

 

Commuting means travelling for 7 minutes along blossom laden country roads, business attire means shorts and T-shirt, and colleagues means family and the dog! 

The Rat Race means digging the vegetable plot, meals and aperitifs with friends on the terrace, savouring the unpolluted air and the slow, soft, pace of French Country Living.  The family content to both work and live together, the children safe in the local village school.

 

If, however, this idyllic, stress-free existence is not stimulating enough for your business ambitions, then Day Boats® also offers challenges and opportunities for expansion to whatever depths and to whichever horizons you wish to take it.

 

Whatsoever your choice, YOU will be making it: the decisions will be yours, the benefits yours, the responsibility yours and the fulfilment yours.

 

You are the ‘Master and Commander’ of your own destiny.


Potential for Expansion

  • Develop website and internet reservations. An area that neither Keith nor Margaret are at all interested in pursuing

  • Enter into mutual promotions with hotels, gites (over 1,000 gites within a 50 mile radius), campsites, B & B’s etc.

  • Develop trading links with CEs (Comité d’Entreprises). Every company in France with 50 or more employees is legally obliged to set up, and contribute to, a Social Club. The towns of Rennes, Nantes, Vannes and Lorient are all within easy reach of La Gacilly and these Social Clubs are, at present, totally unexploited. A vast potential market for Day Boats.

  • Develop trading links with local restaurants

  • Franchise the name Day Boats (a registered Trade Mark)

  • Build boats

     

    Boat mould (included in sale)

    The boat mould and wood stock for the house's wood burner

  • There are grants available in this area for boat building. La Gacilly has an industrial site on the waterfront near the boat yard and gives start-up concessions to small businesses. Franchise fleets (and name) can be set up. The building mould for the hull is already included in the business sale.

  • Open longer hours to satisfy
      • Bird watchers (morning hire)
      • Fishermen (early and late)
      • Photograph enthusiasts (early evening light and autumn colours)

      • Romantic couples (early evening)

The potential market for the two latter groups comes from local restaurants and hotels and those visiting the photographic exhibition.

Requests for these extended hours have thus far been refused by Keith and Margaret.

  • Advertise in specifically targeted magazines/shops/websites i.e. Angling, Bird Protection/Bird Watching/Nature Lovers/Conservationists
  • Obtain a ‘Cruising for the disabled’ label

Keith and Margaret have never sought to expand their field of operation so have never explored any of these avenues.

 

...and finally

This is a unique opportunity to purchase - at a sensible price and for a genuine reason - a successful small business with an excellent trading reputation, faithful client base, 17 years of good will and enormous expansion potential.

 

Keith will be 65 on 14 October 2010 so takeover can be arranged to follow that date.

 

If you have any further queries or would like to arrange a viewing please do not hesitate to contact either Keith or Margaret on 00 33 (0)6 800 77 550

 

Price €225,000 (two hundred and twenty five thousand euros). Does not include solicitors' fees or government taxes.

 
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