Lewmar News

Lewmar Sells Seco South

Management buy out for Seco

 
HAVANT, UK - Lewmar Marine plc has today announced the sale of its yacht and architectural rigging subsidiary Seco South Inc. to the company's management team.

Navtec, the rigging division of Lewmar Marine plc, acquired Florida-based Seco South as part of a merger with Norsemann Gibb in 1995. Seco South has supplied OEM rigging to the majority of sailboat manufacturing companies in the U.S. for over 25-years.

In an announcement today Peter O'Connell, Lewmar's CEO explains, "Seco South has always had an excellent reputation as a rigging provider to U.S. OEM boat builders. In recent years the OEM rigging market has changed, resulting in Seco moving away from Lewmar and Navtec's core sailing business to significantly develop the architectural rigging side of the operation.

"Conversations started earlier this year with the management team have culminated in a management buy-out (MBO) this month. Strategically, this is the best outcome for both Seco South, its employees and Lewmar Marine. Lewmar and Seco have on-going business relationships and will continue to have a very close working association," adds O'Connell.

Lewmar Marine plc is the holding company of Lewmar and Navtec. In July 2007, Navtec, the world leader in performance rigging for the marine industry, was integrated into Lewmar to become a branded division of the company. This simplified the group's channel to market and supply chain, increasing market reach and reducing overhead costs.

Lewmar Marine plc., a publicly traded company on London's PLUS Markets, is headquartered at Southmoor Lane, Havant, Hampshire P09 1JJ, England. Telephone: 44 (0) 2392 471841. It was formerly known as Clyde Marine until a name change was approved in mid-August 2007.

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About Navtec

Navtec is the world leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of performance rigging and hydraulic systems for sailboats. The company supplies rigging and hydraulic systems for America's Cup yachts, performance cruising yachts and a variety of applications in between. Top boat builders, rigging specialists, and sailors around the globe also rely upon Navtec products. (www.navtec.net)

About Seco South

Seco South is the largest rigging facility in the U.S. dedicated to supplying stainless steel rigging and life line systems for the boating and architectural markets. Formed over 25 years ago as an OEM sailboat rigging company, it remains dedicated and committed to serving these companies. (www.secosouth.com).

About Lewmar

Lewmar, the world's premier leisure marine equipment supplier, designs, manufactures and distributes products including: anchors, winch, windlass, hatch, hardware, rigging, steering, and thrusters. The company is the most recognized name in recreational boating deck equipment. In 2006, its OneTouch winch handle won the top DAME award, the most globally competitive prize for marine equipment, at the Marine Equipment Trade Show (METS) in Amsterdam. Manufacturing is located in the U.K. and the U.S. Sales and assembly offices are located in Australia, France, The Netherlands, the U.K., and the U.S. Lewmar sells through a worldwide network of agents and distributors. (www.lewmar.com).
 

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