Acting through its 100 percent owned Nordica subsidiary, Italy’s Tecnica Group has acquired a 66.66 percent stake in Blizzard, one of the best-known Austrian ski suppliers, from the Raffeisen Bank. The balance of the shares will be held by Karl Hofstatter, who remains as chief executive of the Austrian ski company.
The transaction, whose price could not be determined, is subject to approval by Austria’s anti-trust authority. It will give to both Blizzard and Tecnica more critical mass in the increasingly concentrated ski market. While Blizzard is currently producing about 300,000 pairs of alpine skis a year, Nordica has built up its own ski deliveries to about 150,000 pairs for the current season and is aiming for 200,000 pairs in a couple of years’ time.

Tecnica was previously linked with Völkl, which is now a property of K2, as well as with Elan. The Italian group has been manufacturing its Nordica skis lately at its own factory as well as through Elan and Fischer. About 20 percent of Nordica’s ski production will move to Blizzard’s Austrian factory in Mittersill as of next year.

At the same time Blizzard will go ahead with a plan to start up next January its own factory in the Ukraine for the manufacture of polyurethane injected skis, targeting initially an annual volume of about 100,000 pairs of mostly junior skis. To this effect it will put an end to a manufacturing agreement with Fischer through its Ukrainian plant.

It’s not clear whether Blizzard has been profitable lately, but it is certain to gain from synergies with Nordica and the other components of Tecnica Group in terms of R&D, purchasing of materials and components, as well as international distribution. Blizzard’s annual turnover of around €35 million will allow Tecnica Group to go beyond the €400 million hurdle.

Nothing has been decided yet about the integration of the respective sales networks. The task will fall partly on the shoulders of Thomas Zettler, an industry veteran who was appointed last Oct. 1 as Blizzard’s new sales and marketing director. He had a strong role in Atomic’s international development. After a small stint at Marchon, the American eyewear licensee of Nike, he worked for Marker and other winter sports brands of K2 recently, until his resignation a few months ago.

Blizzard will also get shortly a new manager of finance and administration, Helmut Exenberger, who has been chief financial officer at a Germanic subsidiary of Sony. He is married to Monika Maierhofer, the former Austrian ski champion.