After a refit and paint job in her new colours, Actual Ultim 4, the former Gitana 17, was unveiled on Tuesday in Lorient before being launched the following morning. Tip & Shaft spoke to Samuel Tual, chairman of Actual group.
How did you feel when Actual Ultim 4 left the yard?
It was quite a magical moment and the result of some remarkable work by the teams over the past six months. It was a race against the clock to get everything ready for this date. Revealing this boat in her new colours creates a special emotion. Strictly speaking, it’s not a new boat, so we can talk about a second birth or a rebirth, with lots of hopes and rather pleasing prospects for this Actual Ultim 4. This new page generates expectations and impatience to see this beautiful trimaran come to full fruition under our colours.
What made you decide to buy it?
There are three reasons. The first is that, since we started ocean racing 24 years ago, each stage of the sporting project has corresponded to specific dates in the life of the company. In 2001, when we started sponsoring sailing with Yves (Le Blevec) in the Mini Transat, we had 15 agencies and a turnover of 45 million euros; ten years later, when we built the 50-footer (Ocean Fifty, Multi50 at the time), we had 100 agencies and a turnover of 200 million euros; and in 2021, when we launched Actual Ultim 3 (formerly Macif), we had 600 agencies and a turnover of 1.6 billion euros. We’re now in a new phase, with a business plan for 2031 that sets out a strong ambition: to become the benchmark player in the French job market, in both temporary and permanent recruitment. We have the potential to achieve sales of 3 billion by that date, with a significant proportion of that figure coming from outside France, which is one of the challenges of the moment. This strong ambition is reflected in the acquisition of this boat.
And the other reasons?
The second reason is that when you’re a competitor and an opportunity like this presents itself, you tell yourself that if you don’t seize it, another competitor will. And the third reason is that in Anthony (Marchand) we have a young, successful sailor (40 years old) to whom we are offering the chance to grow and fulfil his potential with a boat that matches his ambitions.
“We have the means to win”
So your sporting ambition is to win?
When we entered the Ultim class, it was a very important step for us from a strategic point of view. It gave us greater visibility (than in the Ocean Fifty class) because the Ultim class is by nature very exposed, but we had no pretensions of victory, because we knew that we had a smaller budget and a less competitive boat than the other teams. Then some opportunities presented themselves and each time they enabled us to progress, to move up a step, as was the case with the purchase of Macif. Now, with the acquisition of Gitana 17, we have the means to win. Each stage therefore corresponds to an ambition, which is also correlated to the size of the team and the budget we’re devoting to the project.
Does that mean the pressure is now on Anthony Marchand‘s shoulders?
Pressure, I don’t know if that’s the right word, but today he has the skills and a boat that is certainly one of the most competitive on the circuit. We start the Fastnet next week and then the Transat Café L’Or, which is the key event of the year, will be just around the corner, and will be a very important stage in our preparations for the Rhum next year. I’ve done what I needed to do at my level, so it’s now up to Anthony!
Does this new boat come with a bigger team?
Yes, we’ve taken advantage of this new stage to resize the team, which now numbers around twenty people. The need to keep this boat up to date and to develop it further, because technically it hasn’t said its last word, has led us to bring in skills that we didn’t have before, particularly in the design office.
“4 million euros a year”
A more competitive boat and a bigger team inevitably mean a bigger budget. Can you tell us what Actual Group’s budget is for this project?
The sailing project is part of a more global sports sponsorship project, which is itself part of the group’s communications budget, for which it is necessary to communicate: although our clients are primarily companies, it is also important that job applicants think of us when they are looking for work, so there is a real BtoC target and therefore a visibility communication issue. We allocate a proportion of the Group’s budget to this objective, and as the company grows and evolves, the size of this budget automatically increases. In this case, for sailing, excluding the boat, the operating budget has increased by 500,000 euros to around 4 million euros per year.
And how much did you buy the boat for?
That’s a figure I don’t give out, but I bought her at far too high a price for my liking (smiles).
Do you measure the media impact of your investment in sailing and can you give us some figures?
Yes, of course, depending on the year, between 10 and 15 million euros a year. Bearing in mind that a project like this also enables us to offer our clients and partners some very exciting experiences, which can also be measured in terms of business growth. That’s another reason why it’s lasting, because these measurements allow us to confirm that sailing sponsorship is in the company’s best interests.
“Giving visibility and
stability to the class”
You’ve invested in Mini Class, Ocean Fifty, Figaro, and for the past ten years in Ultims, but never in Imoca boats. Have you shown any interest, particularly in the Vendée Globe?
I’m not going to tell you that the question has never arisen, but we very quickly decided in favour of the Ultim class. First of all, because in the company, by nature, we’re not really followers, the idea is to try and stand out. Secondly, because I think that multihulls have some pretty incredible advantages over Imoca boats in terms of performance and visibility. The objective of the Ultim class is to sail around the world single-handed in a multihull (the Arkea Ultim Challenge-Brest), just as the Vendée Globe is for the Imoca boats. We have an incredible story to tell with this exceptional race, I’m a great believer in its potential and rather than having one boat among many, we think that our positioning in Ultim gives us greater visibility.
The fact remains that there aren’t many boats sailing and that the class, of which you’ve been president since last year, hasn’t attracted any new entrants for a number of years.
That’s precisely one of the challenges we’ve defined as part of our new three-year project. The aim is first and foremost to give stability and visibility to our racing programme, i.e. a four-year calendar rather than working from one year to the next. As part of this programme, we also want to create our own races, because we believe that our out-of-the-ordinary boats deserve to be given the opportunity to express themselves to the best of their abilities. The Odyssée Ultim in the Mediterranean next year will be an example of this, but it’s only the beginning of a process we’ve initiated. This stability and visibility also applies to the measurement, which has been agreed for the next four years and provides a very precise framework to avoid the problems encountered in the past. All this should enable us to meet our other major challenge, which is to develop the fleet. This will be the case this year, as we will have a new boat (Gitana 18). We know that we won’t go from 5 to 20, that’s not our ambition, but it’s important to maintain a dynamic and to have a market for second-generation boats to encourage the entry of new projects. Finally, we’re looking at a number of innovations, particularly in the area of non-identified objects detection, and we’ll be making some announcements at the end of the year. I think that with this roadmap, we’ve ticked quite a few boxes to enable projects to become part of our class over the long term.
Talking of new entrants, where do you stand on the sale of Actual Ultim 3?
Discussions are progressing, to the point where it’s not completely out of the question that I might announce in the next few days that I’m entering into exclusive negotiations with a potential buyer.
Photo : ATM Communication
