Jongert Suspends Operations...

I visited the yard after a meeting with the management in Düsseldorf last week. I doubt that they allow visitors in their facility.

The Dutch shipping weekly "Schuttevaer" is reporting today that Jongert will be closing down (again). Owners VeKa were unable to sell the yard as a going concern. The 15 remaining staff have been handed their notices. Last jobs of the yard were two small patrol boats for the Dutch navy and a refit of a Jongert sailing yacht (wasn't that the TAMER?). No mention of the 3200P sailing yacht they were building on spec.

Here's the link (in Dutch unfortunately, and behind a paywall): http://www.schuttevaer.nl/nieuws/sc...d22965-doek-valt-definitief-voor-jongert.html

Very bad news for a former loyal Jongert (sail boat) owner. But I was waiting for this news for several month. Their road was going downhill for years.

When Jongert left Medemblik and moved to their new way oversized premises and the old ownership retired (forgot which came first), they became overconfident (or maybe even megalomaniac). The new ownership were no boat builder by heart, they were just pure business people. In order to pay the mortgage on this new yard complex, they changed and optimized their building processes towards higher profit margins and less customer input / wishes (the Dutch way of semy custom ) and worst of all, stopped listening to their loyal customers. Even after their first bankrupty, where their loyal customers backed them up, they did not listen. Thats the point where they left their last friends behind. And from that point it only went downhill.

To bad, they have built some very nice power and sail boats in the past. But many others have come up (Royal Huisman, Vitters and Holland Yachtbouw (HJB) for example and are much better now. Their market segment has been taken by others and will be not easy to regain. The brand name Jongert has been burnt, as we say in European business. May be the yard buildings can be used for potatoe storage in the future (there are big potatoe fields behind the yard ) but not for building boats under the name of Jongert.

End of story.

Seems like a contradiction in terms there from 4 yrs ago, This chap says he visited but then says he doubts that they allow visitors.

Anyone who is a potential customer can visit any of the yards I am familiar with, this is not to say you will be shown around anything they are working on or see plans of these vessels until the colour of your money is seen and even then it is not always possible to get on a boat under construction even if as a client you are building a bigger one.

Acico Yachts announced, that they acquired Jongert. Another chance for the brand Jongert

http://ymlp.com/zhIlWi