Saxdor is adding a second production facility in Ełk, Poland, with another 10,000 square metres of floor, and says it will let the company double output of its 460 range. Chief executive Erna Rusi described it to Zella Compton of Marine Industry News at the Cannes Yachting Festival. The interview was published on 21 September 2026; neither Saxdor nor its owner Malibu Boats has issued a release, and the company has not given a cost, a timetable, a hiring figure or a target output.
"We're doubling up," she told the magazine. "Boats are getting bigger, and so is the space."
The ceiling the industry predicted
Rusi puts the expansion down to capacity. "We were told that nobody in this market, or in this industry, can sell more than 60 units per year in that size category," she told MIN. "We said, 'Okay', and we sold more than 60, and we could have sold more." MIN adds: "But production limited that outcome."
The 460 platform now has two boats on the water. The cabin version, the 460 GTC, premiered at boot Düsseldorf in January 2026; the open 460 GTS launched at Cannes this month. "Now we're bringing the open boat to complement the coast cabin boat that was introduced in Düsseldorf," Rusi said, "and it seems that the appetite is there for doubling the production." The segment is the Nordic dayboat one that Axopar, Nimbus and Navan work in, scaled up to 46 feet.
MIN reports revenue up 65 per cent, from €109 million in 2024 to over €180 million in 2025. US retail boat sales fell 4.37 per cent year on year in the second quarter of 2026, and Malibu's own management expects the industry to be "flat to down in fiscal 2027".
For scale, the hall Saxdor already runs in Ełk is also 10,000 square metres; it was finished in October 2022 for about €7.5 million (PLN 36 million at the exchange rate of the time), and the yard said at the time it wanted 300 new staff. According to Saxdor's website as of 22 September 2026, the company has four Polish facilities in Ełk and Olecko at almost 21,000 square metres combined, so another 10,000 would take the Polish total to about 31,000 square metres. The doubling Rusi describes is of output on one line.
Which plant will build the 460s is unsettled. Saxdor's Larsmo announcements of November 2025 give the Finnish site the largest models, the 460 GTC among them, while MIN ties the Polish expansion to 460 demand. Malibu chief executive Steve Menneto, on the earnings call of 27 August 2026, said only: "We're still manufacturing in Poland and in Larsmo. We've introduced the 460 production."
The other new capacity is in Florida
"We have now started the US production as well, so our first model is now, as we speak, being produced in Fort Pierce in our Pursuit factory in Florida," Rusi told MIN. Pursuit is a Malibu brand and the plant already exists. Malibu finance chief David Black said on the same 27 August call: "We could do upwards of 200-plus units out of that facility without any incremental CapEx investment."
No American-built Saxdor has been delivered. Malibu expects "completion of our first domestically-built Saxdor boats at our Fort Pierce, Florida facility" in the first half of fiscal 2027, which on Malibu's calendar runs July to December 2026. A hull is on the line.
Saxdor is starting US production in the same year that Beneteau wound down its own American manufacturing.
The numbers inside Malibu
| Measure | Reading |
|---|---|
| Acquisition closed | 2 March 2026 |
| Price | €150 million — €110 million cash plus stock worth about €40 million |
| Saxdor net sales, quarter to 30 June 2026 | USD 61.2 million on 180 boats |
| Malibu group guidance, FY2027 | USD 1.08–1.12 billion, including "mid-teens growth at Saxdor" |
Sources: Malibu Boats 8-K exhibit 99.1 of 02.03.2026; results release 27.08.2026, corrected 31.08.2026; David Black, earnings call 27.08.2026.
The Polish backdrop
Poland builds roughly 22,000 recreational boats a year and exports about 95 per cent of them, second in the world by volume, on Polboat figures via the Polish Investment and Trade Agency. Saxdor employs close to 1,000 people across Finland and Poland by its own account on 22 September 2026; Malibu's March 2026 release said over 800. The same page lists more than 180 dealer locations in over 70 countries.
Photo: Saxdor Yachts (the company's plant in Poland). Source: Marine Industry News, 21.09.2026 (Zella Compton); Saxdor Yachts company, shipyard and model pages, read 22.09.2026; Saxdor press releases 18.01.2022, 06.06.2024, 10.11.2025 and 23.07.2026; Malibu Boats press release, SEC 8-K exhibit 99.1, 02.03.2026; Malibu Boats Q4 FY2026 results 27.08.2026 and corrected release 31.08.2026; Polboat via the Polish Investment and Trade Agency; IBI, 21.09.2026.
