Page 50 - bne_November 2020_20201104

50 I Eastern Europe bne November 2020
Ukraine's Fischer ski factory makes 60% of all the company's skis and is a powerhouse in the indutsry.
from the same workshop. Few are aware that Ukraine is probably Europe’s biggest producers of skis in all of Europe and dominates the market, producing hundreds of thousands of skis and snowboards a year.
In the 1970s, Mukachevo was the Soviet Union's first factory to start manufacturing plastic skis.
At this point, the size of the damage caused by the factory is not yet clear. Roman Chebunin, marketing director
of Fischer's Russian office, was quoted as saying by skisport.ru that it's too early to make any judgement.
"All we can say at this point is that no one was injured, and the audit of the facility is currently in progress to determine the size of damage." Although the Mukachevo factory has kept a low profile, Fischer produces 85% of its skis at the plant, which, according to the Austrian company, accounts for one quarter of the international ski market and one half of that of the European Union.
In 2017, the most recent data available, Mukachevo posted a net profit of EUR3.3mn. The factory employs 1,200 Ukrainian workers. Fisher formed a joint venture company with Mukachevo in 1995. The Austrian manufacturer owns a 50% share of the joint venture.
Apart from skis, the Mukachevo factory produces ice hockey sticks, equipping 27 teams of the National Hockey League.
gave his name to the skis and died last August at the age of 90. The plant was located in Mukachevo as originally skis were made of wood and the region was
its business. Fischer came for the trees and stayed for the low labour costs
and skilled workers. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of an
“The fact that the Austrian-owned factory grew up in the Soviet Union never seemed to have much of an impact on its business”
densely forested, but the business grew and in the 1970s the factory switched to producing its first plastic skis, after which it soon went international under Fischer’s guidance.
The fact that the Austrian-owned factory grew up in the Soviet Union never seemed to have much of an impact on
independent Ukraine in 1991 also had little impact on the plant, which has continued to churn out skis from
its facility for almost 80 years.
The factory makes 60% of its Fischer brand skis from the Mukachevo factory as well as manufacturing a number
of other famous brands under licence
The Fischer family partriarch Joseph Fischer built up the prodcution of skis in Ukraine for export to the west during the Cold War died at the age of 90 last year.
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