Skistar Spends on St Johann
Scandinavia’s biggest ski resort operator, SkiStar, recently made their first foray outside their usual northern operating location and snapped up a famous destination in the Austrian Tirol – St Johann, close to Kitzbuhel, when the company became a majority shareholder of the ski business.
After spending a first winter reviewing the resort’s operations, SkiStar have announced plans for a big spend this summer, with another 17 Million Euros being invested in a new gondola, chairlift and snowmaking.
“With St. Johann we have found a very good ski resort to establish SkiStar in the Alps. The investment will increase the offer for families, beginners and intermediate skiers, who want to enjoy skiing, surrounded by a wonderful panorama of the Alps,” said Mats Årjes, CEO of SkiStar AB, hinting that St Johann is just the start for SkiStar in the Alps.
The group owns and operates ski resorts in Sälen, Åre, Vemdalen, and Hammarbybacken (Stockholm) in Sweden as well as Hemsedal and Trysil in Norway and have 50% of the total skier market share in Sweden, 31% in Norway and a total of 42% in Scandinavia.
Preliminary work is reported to be already underway for the new gondola lift at the Eichenhof with construction scheduled to begin on June 19, 2017 with building beginning on the bottom station Image top is of how it will look).
The lift is being supplied by Italian company Leitner from Sterzing in South Tyrol and in addition, a six-seater chairlift is planned to provide even more comfort and faster uplift for skiers.
The new gondola lift will lead on a 960m long route from the existing Eichenhof bottom station to the Grander-Schupf after the original project lift’s route was re-planned.
There will be a total of 24 gondolas, each abler tyo carry up to 10n passengers, and able to lift up to 1800 people per hour into the ski area.
“It’s the start of a busy but exciting time, and it is after all a great pleasure for us to build the new lift at the Eichenhof. In addition to increasing snow safety, this is a major step towards the further development of the ski area,” said St Johann’s CEO Manfred Bader.
