Kneissl, the traditional Austrian ski brand, enjoys fresh capital from a potent new investor, the Sheikh Al Jaber. By increasing the company’s capital, Al Jaber now holds 60 percent in Kneissl. The remaining 40 percent stays with Fritz Unterberger, an Austrian businessman from the Western part of the country.
According to Andreas Gebauer, managing director of Kneissl, Unterberger’s empire is worth some €140 million in annual sales and is very active in real estate as well as in selling BMW cars. The Sheikh’s business is a little bit bigger, though. Al Jaber is involved in the group MBI which makes some €6 billion a year, mainly through real estate, hotels and food.
He is especially interested in tourism, and that’s why he moved into Kneissl. Al Jaber already runs three upper-range hotels in Vienna and intends to invest in the winter and outdoor business in the western part of the country. Precise plans are being developed for two Kneissl Sports Resorts in the country’s Western Alps along with so called Kneissl Star Lodges, a combination of retail and lifestyle, in Vienna, Innsbruck and Kitzbühel. It is tourism which the Sheikh is after, but some sporting goods are part of the plan.
The Kneissl brand itself is going to be based on four pillars: the resorts, the lodges, the sports equipment including racket sports and the development of a Kneissl apparel collection.
In 2007, the brand sold 17,000 pairs of skis, 20 percent of that in Austria. Exports went mainly to Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Japan. Half of the goods were manufactured in its own production facilities, the rest in Fischer’s.
The turnover was at €3.2 million in 2007. The financial performance has improved over the last few years: While the operating loss was €5.8 million in 2006, it decreased to €1.5 million last year. Gebauer predicts an operating loss of €1.1 million for the current year and break-even results for 2009.
