Volvo Penta enters into agreement with Bavaria

Volvo Penta has signed an agreement with German boat builder Bavaria to deliver diesel and gasoline engines during the next four years.
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With an annual production of some 3,000 boats, Bavaria is one of Europe’s largest builders of leisure craft. Production, which is conducted at the company plant in Giebelstadt in Bavaria, Germany, includes the building of motorboats and sailboats ranging from 25 to 49 feet. The company’s range of motorboats and sailboats are sold throughout the world.

Volvo Penta has been an important supplier to Bavaria for a number of years but the recently signed agreement will strengthen this position.

“We have had a high rate of product renewal in recent years and the agreement signed with Bavaria is further confirmation that our products are highly competitive. Despite total volumes within the leisure craft industry having decreased in recent years, we have successfully increased our sales,” comments Volvo Penta’s President Staffan Jufors.

Bavaria is now purchasing diesel and gasoline engines ranging in output from around 20 to 300 hp, representing largely the whole of Volvo Penta’s light and medium-heavy engine range.

On the sailboat side, the deliveries will consist of Volvo Penta’s so-called Compact Collection, including the D2-55, with which Volvo Penta in recent years has captured an increasingly larger share of the sailboat market.

In the motorboat segment, deliveries include Volvo Penta’s 3- and 4-liter diesel engines (produced in Vara, Sweden), including the KAD300, which was very positively received in the market for leisure craft in the 24- to 42-foot class. Volvo Penta’s sales of KAD300 in 2002 were about four times greater than the projected volume.

The greater part of the deliveries to Bavaria are accounted for by diesel engines. The balance comprises Volvo Penta’s US-produced 4- to 8-liter gasoline engines, with outputs ranging from around 200 to 400 hp.