Overview
During the corona crisis, a lot of clients ask us: Are there markets besides the traditional automation markets, which we can serve? These questions came often from companies with a focus on automotive or other markets, which were hit particularly hard. About one year ago, I published an article on how skis are made, which made me think: Is there an automation market around skiing? How big is it? Is it attractive?
Having enthusiastic skiers at ARC, we identified the five different aspects and opportunities:
1) Ski lift
2) Snowcats
3) Snow guns
4) Ticketing / Access control
5) Ski service machines
All these markets fall under the traditional automation market pattern where there are OEMs, systems integrators, and end users. While selected companies cover multiple segments, most are focused on one of the four markets. However, as skiing is a seasonal business, many companies have developed also outside of the ski business. Examples are ticketing solutions to soccer stadiums, vehicles that operate in deserts, or urban transportation solutions.
History of Automation in the Ski Industry
People were always keener to ski down than to hike up, which led to the opening of the first ski lift in 1908. It was all 
mechanical and operated with hydro power from a nearby mill. The first modern ski lifts were introduced in 1934 in Davos, Switzerland, launching a first wave of ski lift installations in Switzerland, Germany, and France. The number of lifts really increased in the 1960s to 1970s in the European Alps, and many of these were modernized in the 1990s and 2000s.
In the 1960s, Prinoth designed the first snowcat, as mass tourism kicked in. In 1963, the first mass produced snowcat was introduced. Kaessbohrer followed in 1969. Today, these two brands still own the market.
The fundamental mechanisms of snowmaking were discovered in the late 1940s in Canada by accident. The first patent was given in 1961 in the US, followed by various inventions and improvements from the company Linde, Germany, in the late 1960s and then in the 1980s by Italians, developed into the company TechnoAlpin, which claims to be world market leader today.
As mass tourism started to increase in the 1980s, ticketing got more professional. The market began to develop rapidly in the 1990s. Ski service machines sprung from ski manufacturing machinery. Before the late 1970s ski services were done manually.
Snowcats (German: Pistenraupe)
A snowcat is a prime example for a mobile machinery with multiple components. Today, there are two manufacturers left on a global level that build snow cats: Kässbohrer (they own the brand name PistenBully and have annual revenues of around €200 Mio.) and Prinoth (part of HTI group). Tucker (US) is a third supplier, but small compared to the first two.
Snowcats are high-tech machines, which are increasingly hybrid, providing the advantage of having the torque necessary in steep terrain and reducing fuel consumption significantly. Electrification not only affects propulsion, but also replaces hydraulic actuation for the tools, which makes the machines more reliable, lighter, more compact, and more flexible. For automation vendors, the area of mobile automation has been attractive for some years. Companies such as ifm electronic or Jetter (part of Bucher industries an OEM for mobile machinery) have addressed it specifically for many years.
Innovation does not stop at electrification. AI is used for self-driving snowcats, which would make life easier for many as slope preparation is done at night.
Ski Lifts
While in the 1950s there were around 75 companies building ski lifts, today there are only two: Doppelmayr/Garaventa Group (revenues of around $900 million), which also includes CWA, and Leitner/Poma (revenues above $1 billion). While the market was around $1.1 billion in 2012, we estimate it reached around double the volume pre-COVID, due to larger waves of modernization. According to Swiss and Austrian press, both companies are in cutthroat competition, and there are many stories when it comes to newly built ski lifts, how tough the competition actually is (see here and here (German only)).
Important for automation companies is that the ski lifts need major modernization around every 30 years. As there was a boom in the 1970s and 1980s, one of the biggest waves of modernization is still ongoing. Ski lifts have also moved from simple anchor lifts to offering more comfort. Modern detachable chairlifts typically have a bubble to close and are heated. This means that older lifts are not only replaced 1:1 but there is typically a serious upgrade. The trend towards larger ski regions adds to the trend that new lifts are built to link two or three existing ski regions.
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Keywords: Ski Automation, Mobile Machinery, Access Control, Machine Tools, Large Drives, ARC Advisory Group.
April 10, 2021 at 10:14AM
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Skiing Industry Embraces More Sophisticated Automation| ARC Advisory - ARC Advisory Group
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