Clear number 1 on the ropeway world market

Ever since the start, Doppelmayr has been considered very innovative: Already 120 years ago the company founder Konrad Doppelmayr built modern and reliable machines. This tradition carried on without interruption. Today, Doppelmayr is world quality and technology leader in ropeway engineering.

This top position is also reflected in the results of the business year 2011/12. Turnovers increased by 10 million to EUR 628 million. The number of employees worldwide increased by 3.7% (Austria plus 6.5% to 1,161).

Ropeways for winter sports regions are the main contributors to the turnovers. Parallel to this, the market for ropeways in urban areas develops with increasing dynamic. During the period covered by the report, Doppelmayr completed several urban ropeways in South America and Europe, more are under construction and in the process of planning.

Doppelmayr faces the challenges on the global markets with customer-oriented product innovations as well as continuous adaptation of the production methods and the materials used to the latest state-of-the-art. This way Doppelmayr can expand its position as technology and innovation leader in the tourist and urban ropeway sector as well as in the field of transport installations and create a solid foundation for a sustainable company success.

Doppelmayr is optimally positioned to persist throughout the coming years. The company management expects good operating results with an increasing turnover for the business year 2012/13.

Fact box:

Market and technology leadership

The fact that Doppelmayr today is the number one on the global ropeway market is the result of a long, far-seeing and sustainability-oriented company policy over more than four generations.

The Doppelmayr story of success started as an innovative machine builder in 1892. The first ropeway was not only special for Doppelmayr but at the same time an important highlight for one of the most successful and famous skiing regions of the world: In 1937, the first Doppelmayr lift was built in Zürs am Arlberg.

Doppelmayr set an important trend with taking the first step into the engineering of detachable ropeways in the early 70s by means of constructing the first gondola in Mellau, Bregenzerwald. This was followed by a large number of innovations and highlights in ropeway engineering, such as the gondolas with the longest rope spans and the highest top station (in the eastern Himalayas), the world's biggest 3S installation in Canada, chairlifts suitable for children, the first ever double-decker ropeway with open-top cabins in Switzerland and many more.

Thanks to continuous advances in performance, operational safety and comfort, not only funicular ropeways but also gondolas can be used as reliable means of urban transport that are unhindered by traffic jams to which the integrated recovery system contributes considerably. This Doppelmayr development ensures that, in the rare case of a failure, the passengers can be safely brought to the stations without having to be evacuated. Urban gondolas are in use in many major cities. Recently, the 10-MGD Emirate Air Lines that was integrated into the public transport system of London shortly before the Olympic Games of 2012 caught the world's attention.

Doppelmayr is also considered a pioneer in the transport ropeway sector. The RopeCon system presents a ropeway system for industrial applications and mining that combines the advantages of ropeways and conveyor belts. Systems of this kind are in continuous service on all continents. One of the most spectacular ropeways for the transportation of goods is the heavy-duty ropeway Linth-Limmern in Switzerland. This installation is the biggest jig-back ropeway of the world, can transport loads up to 40 tons, and is used for the construction of a hydro-storage plant in a high mountain region.

Doppelmayr not only offers all known kinds of ropeway systems from surface lifts to the heaviest jig-back ropeway but has also built each and every one of them. The development of installations that are in line with the market requirements is continuing. At the moment, the focus is not only on the optimization of reliability and comfort for the passengers as it has always been, but also on the energy and cost efficiency. This winter, a chairlift with a photovoltaic power feed is put into operation in the skiing region Golm/Montafon.

Queries and feedback:

Mag. Ekkehard Assmann
Head of Marketing and Public Relations
Rickenbacherstrasse 8-10, Postfach 20
A-6922 Wolfurt, Austria 
Tel. (+43) 05574/604-223
Fax (+43) 05574/75590 
E-mail: ekkehard.assmann@doppelmayr.com
Internet: doppelmayr.com

Innovations, World Novelties and World Records 
of the Doppelmayr Group since 2004 (November 2012)

1. First car-transport ropeway (VW, plant Bratislava)
2. First mobile gondola
3. Unattended operation of gondolas (France)
4. Longest rope span of the world; 8-MGD 1.2 km (Hailuogou, China), 3S installation Kitzbühel 2.5 km
5. Highest 8-MGD of the world (4.848 m, Dagu Glacier in Sichuan, China)
6. Innovation award 2004 of the federal state Vorarlberg for the RopeCon system
7. World novelty: Seat heating for chairlifts (Lech and Schröcken)
8. World novelty: 'Rotating Gondolas' with continuous movement aerial ropeways, Stuckli Rondo (Sattel, Switzerland)
9. World novelty: 'Ferris Wheel' Galzigbahn, St. Anton
10. Start-up of the world's first Mountain Glider (Belgium)
11. World novelty: Seat heating for gondolas (Ischgl and Zell am See)
12. World novelty: Coloured bubbles for chairlifts (Sölden)
13. World novelty: Chairlift design suitable for children (Serfaus)
14. Once more the world's longest rope span with more than 3000 m (Whistler Mountain, Canada)
15. World novelty: First mobile ski lift (Steibis, Germany)
16. World record aerial reversible ropeway for the construction of power plants, Linth-Limmern (Switzerland)
17. World novelty: Base conveyor for continuous movement aerial ropeways (Switzerland)
18. Various world novelties/innovations in the field of 'Ventilation' of gondolas
19. World novelty: Combined installation 8/10-CGD with 2 access loops (Mayrhofen)
20. Various records and innovations regarding the new installation of the Gaislachkogl lift 1+2 (Sölden)
21. World novelty: Recovery concept for 3S installations (Coblenz and Sölden)
22. Longest aerial reversible ropeway in the world (Armenia)
23. World novelty: Recovery concept for continuous movement aerial ropeways (Grasjoch, Montafon)
24. Further records and innovations already under construction (3S ropeways in Sochi)