Catana plans bigger catamarans, new sites, and hundreds of jobs in France

Catana has drawn a much bigger map for its future: a 2030 development plan built around enlarged facilities in Canet-en-Roussillon and Vendée, and a hiring wave that could run into the hundreds. For catamaran buyers, the signal is clear. The French builder is not just adding capacity; it is aiming deeper into the large-cat market, where size, space, and delivery slots have become part of the sales pitch.

Le Parisien described Catana as one of the major players in France’s still-booming market for large catamarans, and the strategy points to a brand that wants to stay there as its boats grow larger. Earlier local reporting had already put the Canet-en-Roussillon project at 150 to 200 jobs on the Catalan coast, with the broader industrial push across the Pyrénées-Orientales and Vendée expected to reach around 500 hires. That kind of staffing increase usually means more molds, more assembly space, and more pressure to keep up with demand for the biggest cruising cats in the line.

The move also fits the way Catana has been talking about its own factory limits for some time. France Bleu reported in 2024 that the builder felt squeezed at its existing Canet-en-Roussillon site when it unveiled the Ocean Class, which it presented as the largest sailboat ever conceived in the town. That model came with its own employment ambitions, tied to about 100 workers, and it showed how directly product growth was colliding with the footprint of the yard.

The Canet-en-Roussillon buildout is not happening in isolation. The town has been expanding its port and nautical infrastructure alongside the Catana project, part of a wider “blue growth” strategy that links boatbuilding with local jobs and coastal industrial renewal. Local reporting in 2021 had already said Catana planned to bring part of its production back from Tunisia to Canet-en-Roussillon and expand the site to build boats across the range, a sign that the company had been preparing for this shift well before the latest announcement.

Leadership at Catana has also changed hands during the run-up to this next phase. After the death of Olivier Poncin in May 2023, his son Aurélien Poncin took charge of the group. Since then, the brand has continued moving upmarket, including the launch of the BALI 7.0 in March 2026, which Catana positioned as a catamaran aimed at the superyacht segment. Put together, the new sites, the 2030 plan, and the enlarged hiring target point to a clearer future lineup: bigger cats, more of them, and a company trying to make sure the production line can keep pace.