Thibaut de Montvalon: Making his mark with the Excess brand
An entrepreneur at heart, Thibaut de Montvalon agreed a little over two years ago to take the helm of the young Excess brand, which had officially been launched a few months earlier. It’s a challenge worthy of this sailor who has switched from monohulls to catamarans.
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Publié le
25/05/2023
Par
Emmanuel van Deth
Numéro :
190
Parution :
Jul.
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Aug.
2023
However, he is familiar with Indonesia, Hong Kong, the south of England and even Florida... His passion for sailing came very early: the young man who became a sailing instructor dreamed of sailing the seas despite only having a handful of dollars in his pocket. After graduating from high school in Belgium, he was conscious of his technical shortcomings and enrolled at the Nautical Institute of Brittany before joining a charter company in Brittany for three years. The desire to be an entrepreneur pushed Thibaut to complete his education with a course at a business school. He then joined Sunsail and took charge of the management of boat schedules, purchasing and preparation. This position, when Sunsail and The Moorings merged, led him to become purchasing and logistics director in England and then in the United States. Thibaut then set up the French and then Asian branches of the yacht transporter Peters & May. He had been in Hong Kong for two years when the Bénéteau Group offered him the position of Asia-Pacific sales manager for Bénéteau/Lagoon. For seven years, Thibaut saw the catamaran manufacturer progress, but preferred to sail on his First 20 or on chartered Sun Odysseys. “The job was exciting,” Thibaut explains, “But I had to take 80 flights a year, without seeing the kids too much...
So, in 2018, my wife (who loves sailing) and I decided to take a sabbatical after 10 years in Asia. We would spend 6 months in the Pacific Ocean. We were about to buy a monohull when Yann Masselot, then Lagoon’s director, managed to convince me not only to opt for a catamaran, but also a new one! The idea was to sell the Lagoon 380 I had just bought. We sailed a wonderful (double) 5,000 miles aboard a catamaran that I had voluntarily simplified as much as possible to avoid any technical problems that could occur in very remote places like the Solomon Islands. So I finally discovered what a catamaran is all about and enjoyed a good average speed of 8.5 knots throughout the journey. The only frustration was that I systematically entrusted the helm to the pilot, due to a lack of feeling. At the end of the trip, I even said to myself that I would go back on the same route on a monohull...”
Although the purpose of this lovely family cruise was to switch off, Thibaut still had two phone calls with Bénéteau. He was offered the position of European sales manager for Lagoon, based in Bordeaux. It was January 2019 and the Excess brand had just been launched. The announcement of sportier, pleasure-oriented catamarans obviously interested Thibaut: “I admit I was a little disappointed by the very early models: the catamarans had elements that were common to both brands. It was a bit like our team - we were all Lagoon and Excess. For me, we had to embody something 100% new, with people focused on that: a dedicated team. I was obviously vocal about this and at the same time I felt like I was not much use to an already well-rounded Lagoon staff. That’s when the opportunity to take the helm of Excess came up. Basically, I was given the baby and told, “If you want a challenge with a philosophy that suits you, well here it is!” Of course, accepting such a challenge is a big risk. If the brand failed, it would inevitably be blamed on its manager. «I went for it anyway! This was the kind of position that attracted me! If I go on another long cruise, it will of course be on a catamaran... Aboard a multihull that is a compromise between XXL comfort and sailing pleasure. Sharing the passion of sailing, that’s what I want! There are plenty of catamarans on which maneuvers are of no real interest. For me, on board a catamaran, we do real sailing, even for two hours during the day”. The 100% Excess team became operational in December 2019 with the arrival of Hervé Piveteau, a former pillar of Jeanneau. Thibaut then began projects that were decidedly different from Lagoon and managed to get people to accept more reasonable production goals - for now, Excess already weighs in at 150 catamarans a year. “I feel like I belong. I like operational development. My belief is that there is a niche for our Excess catamarans. There aren’t many people in this niche, which is a little more «van life» than “villa with pool”. Some people are returning to a more roots-type lifestyle. I am driven by a strong motivation to occupy this market sector with Excess. My main ideas are to offer all the pleasure of sailing aboard a catamaran, to work on simplicity, and to build lighter rather than greener. I also want to develop the link between our Owners and the shipyard, without eliminating the dealers. We may reach 200 units per year, we’ll see... I’d like to give you a scoop but it’s still a bit early. All I can say is that a new model will be presented in the coming months.” The future? “Becoming a businessman is not necessarily my thing... There are several chapters in my life! And of course, I still dream of returning to the Pacific with my family...” Let’s bet that it will be aboard an Excess and that Thibaut will be contributing to our Postcards section!
The Excess 14 was the first project taken on by the new team.
Thibaut de Montvalon has been the director of the Excess brand since the end of 2019.
