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Note: The original article appears in YACHT STYLE Issue 76

Jan-Erik Viitala (grey hoodie) at the Axopar 29 launch at Boot Dusseldorf 2024

EXPLORE DREAM ADVENTURE. The wording on Jan-Erik Viitala’s hoodie doesn’t mince its meanings. In fact, the bearded Finn is happy to tell Yacht Style the exact time and place he decided to brand Axopar as ‘The Adventure Company’.

Pulling up a photo of two Axopar boats nestled together in a cove and backed by a low sun, he explains that the setting is in northeast Sweden’s High Coast, the world’s highest coastline and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

For Viitala on an Axopar, it’s about a two-hour cruise west across the Gulf of Bothnia from his house on Finland’s west coast, where he works in the company’s office in Vaasa, his birthplace. He proudly recalls the moment the company’s new tagline popped into his head.

Northeast Sweden’s High Coast, where Jan-Erik Viitala coined Axopar’s tagline, ‘The Adventure Company’

“This picture is very special to me. It’s one week before Midsummer, it’s about 9.30pm and it’s a spectacular evening. I was on the beach when the drone taking photos flew over us and I just said to myself: ‘We are the adventure company. We’re doing something more than boats; we’re promoting a certain lifestyle’,” says Viitala, Axopar’s founding partner and Creative & Innovation Director.

“However, the trigger was not me sitting on that beach. The trigger was the community of Axopar owners around the world posting pictures of themselves with bikes, kayaks, scuba gear, snorkelling gear, spear fishing gear – anything you can imagine. People were going mountain climbing from the boats. These were actual pictures of how actual Axopar owners use their boats.”

Axopar officially revealed the tagline at Boot Dusseldorf in 2020 and last year announced The Adventure Collection of technical clothing and watersports products that it’s producing in collaboration with Swedish company Sail Racing and Dutch-owned Jobe respectively. Sales of the products are expected to commence this year.

Axopar boat owners frequently post images of their adventures

“Now, anything we do is not only focusing on the boats,” he adds. “We also want to focus on the lifestyle and making the boats more suitable for all-day adventuring and all-weather boating.”

CREATING A GENRE

A decade after the Axopar 28’s now-historic debut at the Helsinki International Boat Show (Vene Bat) in February 2014, Axopar began celebrations of its 10th anniversary at Boot Dusseldorf in January and a media event in Mallorca, Spain, in late April, to be followed by more activation at the Cannes Yachting Festival in September and Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in October.

Boot was a particularly important occasion as it staged the world premiere of the first two versions of the Axopar 29, which succeeds the iconic 28, a model refreshed in 2018 with a ‘Mark II’ edition featuring over 200 revisions and improvements.

Axopar 29 XC and ST in Mallorca, Spain

The company also took stock of its achievements, announcing total production of 6,000 boats to date. The Axopar 28 accounts for about half of the orders, with the 37 that debuted at Boot 2015 (Mark II unveiled in 2020) accounting for much of the rest. The balance is made up of the former Axopar 24 (2016) and three current models: the 22 (2021), 25 (2022) and flagship 45 (2022).

Furthermore, the company was able to announce that it had topped €1 billion in total revenue, having grown its annual turnover from €147million in 2022 to last year’s record €190 million. Viitala expects the figure to rise to over €200 million this year as the global community of ‘Axoparians’ continues to grow.

The company now averages about 800-1,000 boats per year at its production sites in Poland, while its dealer network in Asia includes Asiamarine (Hong Kong), Derani Yachts (Thailand), Europa Yachts (Philippines) and Amal Yachting (Taiwan).

Jan-Erik Viitala, Axopar’s founding partner and Creative & Innovation Director

Just as Axopar has been the face of adventure boating, Viitala has been the face of Axopar in its first decade. Co-founding partner Sakari Mattila traditionally avoids publicity and exited the company in 2016, two years after the brand’s first model made its public debut and started a minor revolution in the leisure boat industry.

The company began its remarkable story by designing a 28ft walkaround with a vertical bow and powered by outboard engines, which immediately distinguished Axopar from its Nordic neighbours.

“At the time, the Scandinavian boat manufacturers were all focusing on inboard diesel engines and big, liveable boats,” says Viitala, who earlier worked at Nimbus, Paragon and XO Boats.

Axopar 29 XC and ST in Mallorca, Spain

“At the same time, we saw a change in people’s behaviour, from staying on a boat for four consecutive weeks during the summer holiday to more day boating and the style of boating you see in the Mediterranean and around the US, for example. As the way of using our boats evolved, Axopar became ‘The Adventure Company’.”

While Axopar’s design caught the eye, its prices have also remained customer friendly and transparent. The company has focused on industrial production, using a hull for each model that can be designed in two, three or even four versions, such as open (Spyder, Cross Bow), hard top (T-Top, Sun Top, Cross Top) or enclosed (Cabin, XC Cross Cabin).

BRABUSIZED

Axopar boats are also used by Brabus Marine, which started 2024 by debuting its biggest model to date – the Brabus Shadow 1200 XC Cross Cabin, based on the Axopar 45 XC Cross Cabin hull platform. Brabus model numbers indicate horsepower, with three Mercury Racing 400R V10 engines propelling the Shadow 1200 to 55 knots.

Jan-Erik Viitala and Constantin Buschmann, CEO of Brabus

Formed in 2017, Brabus Marine is an alliance between Axopar and German company Brabus, which was founded by Bodo Buschmann in 1977 and built its business by making fast, luxurious cars even faster and more luxurious, working with the likes of Mercedes, Maybach and Smart.

Led by his son Constantin since 2018, Brabus has transformed from being solely a car tuner to also developing boats and, more recently, motorcycles.

Its highly specialised ‘superboats’ are produced in the same sites as the Axopar boats but in separate buildings, as they take far longer to build due to the use of higher-value materials, superyacht-standard paint-finishing processes, high-end detailing, and increased power and technology.

Brabus Shadow 1200 world premiere at Boot 2024

“The way they’ve transformed Brabus from an automotive company to a full-luxury, high-performance mobility brand is astonishing. It’s unheard of in the industry,” Viitala says. “I think there were a lot of doubters thinking this was yet another car-boat cooperation or concept that would die out within months.”

Starting at Boot 2018 with the debut of the Shadow 800, based on the Axopar 37 hull platform, Brabus followed a year later with the Shadow 500 (Axopar 28 hull platform), in 2020 with the Shadow 900 (based on the upgraded Axopar 37 hull platform) and in 2022 with the Shadow 300 (Axopar 25 hull platform).

This year, it revealed the Shadow 1000 fitted with twin Mercury Racing 500R V8 engines, a further upgrade of its work on the Axopar 37, which has been the base of Brabus Marine’s core models. Viitala says each new Axopar is designed with the knowledge that it will also become the platform for a higher-performance, ultra-luxury Brabus version.

Brabus Shadow 1200 Sun-Top in Phantom Gray

“During the time we’ve worked together, we’ve been getting more Brabus into the Axopar boats because when we design a model, we know it’s going to be ‘Brabusized’. And the Shadow 1200 is the most Brabus product we’ve ever done.”

S FOR SAKARI

Axopar was the fourth company founded or co-founded by Sakari Mattila, with the name ‘A-XO-Par’ combining initials and letters from his first three companies, Aquador, Paragon and XO Boats. In early 2019, having sold his stake in four companies, Mattila created Saxdor, a name made up of ‘S’ for Sakari, the first syllable of his previous brand (‘Ax’) and the last syllable of his first brand (‘dor’).

Just four years after the launch of the brand’s first boat, Saxdor management describe the company as one of the world’s fastest-growing boat brands and share figures to back it up.

Saxdor’s flagship 400 GTO had its Asia debut at this year’s Singapore Yachting Festival

Starting with 30 people and a rented 1,000sqm production facility in Elk, Poland, it now employs more than 500 people across a new head office in Helsinki, its own 10,000sqm production site in Stoczniowa and a tooling shop in Strefowa, both in Elk. It’s already considering expanding, as it owns a plot next to its Stoczniowa site.

Now producing 600 boats a year, Saxdor almost doubled its annual revenue from €38 million in 2022 to €73 million last year. And having sold out all its models available for 2024, CEO Erna Rusi expects to top €100 million in revenue this year as it starts to make greater inroads to the US, “where we’re just touching the surface”.

“We’re quite happy with the numbers,” she says. “We’re profitable and investing our profits into further growth.”

Adam Waters, MD of DCH Marine, and Erna Rusi, CEO of Saxdor

Such rapid growth might not have looked likely in 2020 when the new company launched its first model, the Saxdor 200, on March 5 – the day Finland went into lockdown. “In the first couple of years, we couldn’t travel, so we never met any of our dealers and barely took part in any boat shows,” Rusi says.

This year, Hong Kong-headquartered DCH Marine has become Saxdor’s distribution partner for Asia-Pacific, covering Greater China, Southeast Asia – where it oversees several existing dealers – as well as Australia and New Zealand. In North Asia, dealers include Ad Custom Yacht for Japan and Hyundai Yachts in Korea. It already has a strong dealer network in the Middle East, where its clients include royalty.

“Along with the US, Asia is one of our expected growth areas, along with new niche markets like Uruguay, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico,” Rusi says.

Saxdor’s 320 GTC was also at this year’s Singapore Yachting Festival

Today, Saxdor’s models include the open 200 and upgraded 205, but it really found its stride on the 270 and 320 platforms, with the 320 GTO emerging as the brand’s best-seller last year. In 2023, it also unveiled its new flagship 400 GTO before debuting the 400 GTC at this year’s Boot Dusseldorf, where it also announced it was developing the 460 GTC.

Rusi says Saxdor models, based on light, twin-stepped, V-shaped hulls, are Mattila’s best boats to date, combining all his learnings from three decades of design.

“Saxdor was founded on three brand pillars: design, performance, price,” Rusi says. “On the design side, we believe we have the best products that Sakari Mattila has designed. This is his fifth brand and we believe this is where he has brought it all together. And the boats are designed to be easy to build, to help with production speed and lower the prices. Saxdor is his ultimate creation.”

The 270 GTO was among three Saxdor models at Singapore Yachting Festival 2024

She’s also quick to not classify Saxdor as adventure boats, but as “luxury adventure”, so closer to luxury day boats, indicated by the inclusion of drop-down sides. She believes the designs are flexible enough to be used in any way an owner wishes.

“Saxdor makes sporty, elegant driver’s boats. Whether it’s our big or small boats, they’re very much geared around the driver. Also, they can be used and configured in a variety of ways, so you can use it how you want – driving quickly, slowly, from day trips to staying overnight. The 400 has three cabins, offering plenty of room for guests and longer trips.”

www.axopar.com

www.asiamarine.com

www.derani-yachts.com
www.saxdoryachts.com

www.dch-marine.com

Note: For Part 2 of the feature, click here