Piriou

Piriou builds working ships. The group is based at Concarneau in Brittany, employs about 1,400 people worldwide, turned over 350 million euros in 2026 and has delivered more than 600 vessels over roughly sixty years. What separates it from the French naval primes is the customer mix. Fishing boats, port tugs, dredgers and offshore support craft share the same slipways as warships, which keeps the yards loaded between defence orders and gives the company a commercial cost base that shows up in its patrol vessel pricing.

Shipbuilding is the largest of the three activities. The military and government range covers multi-purpose vessels, coastal patrol boats and offshore patrol ships, and the group is currently lead yard on the French Navy's Patrouilleur Hauturier programme. Seven 92 metre ships of roughly 2,400 tonnes were ordered by the DGA in November 2023, construction of the first began at Concarneau on 22 May 2024, and the lead ship Trolley de Prevaux was launched on 5 February 2026 for delivery in April 2027. These are 92 metre ships displacing about 2,400 tonnes, capable of more than 21 knots, with an endurance of roughly 6,000 nautical miles or thirty days at sea. Piriou shares that programme with CMN and Socarenam, with Naval Group as design authority for the combat system. Kership, the joint venture Piriou set up with Naval Group in 2013, handles military vessels up to 100 metres and has delivered more than twenty ships, including three B2M multi-mission vessels for the French Navy, four offshore patrol vessels for Argentina, twelve mine countermeasures vessels for the Belgian and Netherlands navies, and patrol boats for Morocco and Senegal, the last Senegalese hull having been launched in 2023. Kership works from Concarneau, Lorient and a yard at Giurgiu in Romania, the last of which has 30,000 square metres of workshop and a 3,000 tonne synchrolift, while Concarneau can build hulls up to 100 metres under cover.

The commercial side is broad. Piriou builds assistance and port tugs, offshore windfarm support and crew transfer vessels, oil and gas support craft, trawlers, shrimpers, gillnetters, longliners and tuna purse seiners, dredgers, passenger ferries, research ships, polar vessels and expedition yachts. Ship repair and servicing is the second activity, carried out through subsidiaries including PNS at Brest and yards positioned close to customer fleets. Wholesale supply runs through Piriou Negoce, which sells marine equipment and spares into the same customer base the yards already serve. Geography is the third distinguishing feature. Beyond France the group runs West Atlantic Shipyard in Nigeria, Piriou Vietnam, Piriou Senegal, Piriou Reunion, Piriou Maroc and Piriou ATG-Romania, which puts repair capacity and local build capability next to West African, Indian Ocean and South East Asian customers rather than expecting them to sail to Brittany.