Industry News
Ski and snowboard production rose by 37% in the EU in 2022. According to an article in Snow Industry News Online, this means that production within the EU has now surpassed the pre-COVID level. Europe, in general, has long been a large net exporter of skis, with multiple brands rolling out of the same mega factories.
There are many well-known ski and snowboard brands based in Europe. Amer Sports manufactures some of its Atomic and Salomon skis in its factory in Altmarkt, Austria. Rossignol skis are manufactured in its facility in Artes, Spain. Capita Snowboards also built its own “Mothership” environmentally friendly manufacturing facility in Southern Austria. The numbers are pretty impressive, with 2.6 million pairs of skis and snowboards being exported from Europe in 2022. This is up 13% from 2021, which is a big jump in exports.
This sounds like great news for the EU ski industry. However, there is a caveat: many EU based companies had moved production to factories in the Ukraine. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia resulted in temporary as well as sometimes permanent disruptions to production in Ukraine, which meant that some companies moved production back to the EU which could potentially distort year-on-year comparisons. Fischer Sports, for example, previously produced roughly half of its skis in a factory in Muckachevo, 470 miles from Kyiv. This facility was, at one time, responsible for the production of 60% of the skis built in Europe (mainly cross country skis). While the factory resumed production after the initial invasion by Russia, there may have been a permanent shift in production output since the start of the war, which is hard to account for at this point.
Either way, 2022 was a very good year for ski and snowboard production within the EU, and a success story for the European ski industry.
