“The games are of course an absolute accelerator for skiing and we are working hard to use this impetus,” says Atomic boss Wolfgang Mayrhofer. He is also the spokesman for the Austrian ski industry. It is important to use the one-time impulse in the medium and long term.
The Olympic ski races take place near Beijing: The ski manufacturers are therefore hoping to whet the capitol’s taste for skiing.
The growth rates in China are good, says Gernot Kellermayr, President of the Association of Sporting Goods Manufacturers and Sports Equipment Suppliers. The business is “still tiny” compared to other European countries. The common goal of the larger domestic brands (Atomic, Head, Fischer, Blizzard): to raise China to the level of a large European market by 2025, i.e. to sell up to 400,000 pairs of skis per season.
Source: Nachrichten
