Antibes-based crew recruitment agency acquired by The Schulte Group

YPI CREW has been acquired by Schulte Maritime Services PTE, the Singaporean affiliate of The Schulte Group. The Antibes-based yacht crew recruiters will become part of the Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services (BSCS) division, offering technical management and crewing services.

Laurence Lewis, managing director and co-founder of YPI CREW, explained in a statement, “The majority owner of YPI CREW was BRS Yachting and they have decided to concentrate their efforts back into the core business of shipping. At the same time the Schulte Group was interested in making an acquisition in France and expanding into the yachting industry.”

BRS Yachting – the yacht specialists within the BRS Group – is completely selling its stake in YPI CREW. Lewis is intending to continue the day-to-day running of the firm in her current position, and, due to the reputation it has gained over the years, the YPI CREW name will endure.

“I am very happy to join the Schulte Group and, in particular, to be working with the management of Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services,” Lewis added. “Our clients will benefit from the complementary skills and technologies of two leaders in their market segments. We will thus improve our strategy of securing and developing international exchanges. The integration of our talents and our expertise will therefore take place very quickly. We have identified many valuable synergies.”

Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services’ Les Royle continued, “This was a strategic move for us for two main reasons. Firstly, we want to expand into yacht management and, secondly, with cruise business developing so many luxury expedition ships, many of which are calling themselves yachts, we saw that there was an opportunity to offer experienced yacht crew to operators of these vessels.”

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