Are Swedish marinas anti-consolidation?

While the narrative of large marina chains and private equity firms buying up facilities left, right and centre is clear and compelling, it is not valid for all boating markets.

According to a 2025 report published by the European Union that used data from a 2022 ICOMIA report, the three Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden and Finland had rates of recreational boat ownership at 148.3, 82 and 132 boats per 10,000 inhabitants, respectively. 

These figures dwarfed the Mediterranean yachting giants of France (16.7 boats per 10,000 inhabitants), Greece (18.3 boats) and Italy (8.2 boats). Spain had an ownership rate of only two boats per 10,000 inhabitants.

What these numbers demonstrate most clearly is the popularity of boating as an ordinary, recreational activity for the general populace rather than as a luxury pastime for the few that can afford it. With boat ownership rates as high as they are in the Nordics, one would expect there to be a representatively large number of marinas where people keep their boats, and, if global trends are to be followed, a representatively high rate of marina acquisitions. Not so.

Being of Swedish extraction myself, this lack of marina news from the country has not escaped my attention. During my first 12 months as editor of Marina World, there were only two notable acquisitions, namely Marina Group’s opening gambit of four marinas in Sweden (and one in Norway) as well as Port Adhoc’s second acquisition in Sweden, of Gåshaga Marina.

If one were to extrapolate the current global marina acquisition lore onto Sweden, given the huge popularity of recreational boating in the country, then it should in theory be among the hottest markets in the world for marina acquisitions. But the evidence points to the contrary. Why?

‍One big but partial exception

I should start by pointing out that there is one big but partial exception to this rule. Grefab is a network of 11 leisure marinas in and around the Gothenburg region that certainly seems like the kind of marina chain we are used to, however the company is jointly owned by the cities of Gothenburg and Mölndal, and the municipalities of Partille and Ale. Although they are known to operate their marinas well, they do so in competition with private marinas.

In fact, the concept of a commercial, privately run marina doesn’t really exist in Sweden to anywhere near the same extent as in the United States or Mediterranean. There are only a handful of well-known examples, including Ringens Varv in Marstrand on the west coast and Bullandö Marina near Stockholm. Instead, the backbone of the country’s boating industry has long been boat clubs, which are typically structured as non-profit, member-owned or cooperative-style associations, or small and simple municipal harbours.

In contrast to the commercial marina model, members of a Swedish boat club will pay membership fees and elect a board to run the organisation on behalf of its members. Many boat clubs would also expect their members to occasionally volunteer their time to maintain the pontoons, boathouse or any other facilities they might have, reducing membership fees even further. Municipal harbours, meanwhile, have also historically kept costs very low while keeping management and upkeep a municipal rather than berth-holder responsibility.

There are plenty of cultural reasons that explain why these kinds of structures have long dominated Swedish boating, but perhaps the most important is a general belief that nature should be open and accessible to everyone. Sweden is one of the few countries in the world that has a universal “Right of Public Access” law giving all people in the country the right to walk, cycle, ride, ski and camp on any land with the exception of private gardens, near a dwelling house or land under cultivation.

‍Highest access, lowest cost

With this law in mind, it no longer seems so surprising that access to the country’s coastline and record 267,000 islands has been shaped by boat clubs and municipal harbours. Instead of being profit-driven, their purpose has long been to enable as many Swedes as possible to enjoy their country’s maritime beauty at the lowest possible cost.

“Swedish boating culture has had a positive development for the simple reason that everyone has, in principle, had the opportunity to go boating,” said Fredrik Barthold, founder of dockspot. “Not-for-profit organisations and municipalities have kept prices low, making it possible for many people to own a boat. This has of course been very positive.”

“The prices are set at such a level that boat clubs work on a break-even model,” said Lars Brandt, CEO of Seaflex. “They were set up to have the lowest possible costs while giving members a parking place for their boat, and that’s it.

“Looking at these historical profit margins, you can see that buying a marina in Sweden to earn money is perhaps not a sensible idea,” he continued. “You want to buy a marina that is already in good health and gives good returns.”

Meanwhile, the managing director of SF Marina, Michael Sigvardsson, pointed out that low prices are not just because of the dominant boat club and municipal harbour model: “We have around 800,000 berths for 10 million people, which means at least eight percent of the population will have access to a berth. But, if you think that it’s almost always a couple or a family that owns a boat, and not a single person, then almost 25 percent of the population has access to a berth. So the potential to raise prices and make a profit is limited.”

‍Mindset and behaviour

Karl-Oskar Tjernström, co-founder of Secfuel, argues that if you are going to start buying up marinas in Sweden, you need to address a more deep-seated cultural nuance. “The first step is getting people to change their behaviour from one of a boat club to one of a marina,” he said.

“The typical Swede likes to do things themselves,” he continued. “In general, I think it is very difficult to get Swedes to buy into this full-service concept. We want to decide where we keep our boat, where it stays during the winter, we want to fix things ourselves. No Swedish person will ever phone a tradesman to put up curtain rails. They will do it themselves.”

Whereas larger chains in the USA or the Mediterranean might see services as a lucrative profit centre, Swedes by and large seem to enjoy looking after their boats themselves. Or at least they are willing to look after their boats themselves if it means that they can continue to enjoy low berthing fees. The fact that many facilities in Sweden are owned and operated by local municipalities on threadbare budgets almost certainly affects this boating culture, although it is doubtless enabled by Swedish cultural preferences for minimalism and self-reliance.

“There have been a few companies in the real estate sector in Sweden try this full-service concept with a lounge, a receptionist and a gym and so on, and none have flown. I have never seen a single one of them work in Sweden,” Karl-Oskar said. “I absolutely do think it can work but you need to build a market and this is the challenge.”

Toste Tanhua is a Swedish scientist at GEOMAR in Germany and a keen sailor. “The municipality will often have a harbour with pontoons, and a harbourmaster that fixes toilets and showers,” he said. “When you’re out in the archipelago, you will tie up next to a rock or by a tree, and you only go to a harbour for electricity or water, to meet friends, go to the supermarket or have a shower.”

Having spent many summers in Sweden myself, I can attest to this. A weekend away for boating Swedes will begin on a Friday afternoon trip to the supermarket to buy food before heading down to the boat club and sailing off to an island for a couple of nights to either camp or stay on your boat. After all, the Swedish “Right of Public Access” law allows it.

While there might be some boaters who would appreciate some more luxury in the form of a gym or sauna at their marina, Sweden is still the country where people prefer to dive naked into the Baltic Sea instead of lounging all day by a pool in swimming trunks or a bikini.

“It is not the same service level that is expected in the Mediterranean, it’s not like that in Sweden,” concluded Toste. “It’s just a completely different mindset.”

‍The service issue

It is well understood that a major problem facing the global boating industry is encouraging young people to take up the hobby. “It’s complicated, it’s a pain, it’s fiddly,” said one Swede who works in the industry and wished to remain anonymous.

“Everyone is talking about trying to solve this problem by making boating easier, and although this is something that many people in Sweden are looking for, it almost doesn’t exist. There are indeed some that have that level of service, but we need more of it. Of course it costs a little more but certain people could afford it.

“It’s not a case of choosing between luxury or a tent,” they continued. “There is so much in between and there are many people in the middle who could do with a little help across all aspects of boating. I think this consolidation trend is positive, and we will get there sooner or later, but it’s a difficult task because this Swedish boating culture runs deep.”

If you understand that profit is the fundamental motivating factor behind marina acquisitions in other parts of the world, you begin to realise that this business model is antithetical to the history, culture and general operation of Swedish boating. Not only might it go down badly with a population that values high access and enjoys low prices, but it quite simply might just be a bad investment because there is very little from which you could make a profit.

Another issue is the length of the boating season, which might only run for around four months over the summer. Not only is this season too short to justify higher berthing fees, but it also makes achieving a quick return on investment on areas such as service extremely difficult. This, combined with municipalities’ reluctance to relinquish control and their tendency to inhibit marina development, has meant that the Swedish industry has more or less stood still when compared to the Mediterranean.

‍New players are getting in early and quietly

Despite the headwinds, Port Adhoc and Marina Group, the latter being a new venture of the Norwegian investment company, Norvestor, seem to think there are upsides in consolidating Sweden’s very fragmented marina industry. 

Port Adhoc currently owns two service-oriented marinas and I have been told that they are looking to acquire more. Meanwhile, although little is publicly known about Marina Group and I did not receive any response from their management when I requested to learn more about their business, I was told by a third party in Sweden that they are planning up to 50 further acquisitions across the region.

As I was researching this article I was told that a Belgian actor had also been buying up marinas in Sweden, but their identity was not publicly known. Then, only two weeks before Marina World issue 154 went to print, the pan-European investment company AMAVI Capital announced Fantasi Marinas, described as a “new platform established to consolidate the fragmented marina market across the Nordic region”. I checked their website and, lo and behold, their headquarters is indeed in Belgium.

And, biggest of all, it is my understanding that the major Mediterranean marina chain D-Marin has been investigating opportunities in Sweden too, although a senior representative of the company was unable to provide a comment on the topic when the question was put to them.

‍A change in the law

So are Swedish marinas anti-consolidation? Not necessarily. Not only does it seem that there is more going on in Sweden than meets the eye, but those looking to enter the market have been remarkably cagey. It would seem that some have calculated that the Swedish marina market is one that can indeed be consolidated, despite its clear and obvious challenges, and don’t want to shout too loudly in case others manage to get in the door before them.

In any case, the currently operating marina chains in Sweden - Port Adhoc, Marina Group and Grefab (despite being an activity of a municipally owned company) and now AMAVI’s Fantasi Marinas too - demonstrate that the country’s marina industry could be receptive to greater consolidation, provided that it is done in the right way and that it doesn’t undermine the deep-seated roots of Swedish boating culture.

At least this was the case until Seaflex’s Lars Brandt told me in May that the Swedish parliament had just hammered through a new competition law. The Act on Public Commercial Activities, which will come into force on 1 August 2026, will provide the Swedish Competition Authority “greater opportunities to intervene against public sales activities that unduly affect the opportunities for private actors to conduct business in the market”.

While this new law may not affect the traditional boat club model so much, it could enable private companies like Port Adhoc, Marina Group, Fantasi Marinas and D-Marin, or simply individual private marinas, to better compete with municipally owned marinas. However, by the time this article is published, this new law will not have taken effect yet and so it remains to be seen to what extent this will be the case.

Nevertheless, one gets the sense that while Sweden and the wider Nordic region have lagged behind the rest of Europe in marina acquisitions, this could be about to change. The marinas are there, the boaters are there, the gap in service level has been identified, the challenges are well understood, and potentially consequential laws are changing in favour of private companies.