Sheikh Mohammed Bin Issa Al Jaber is taking on 60% of Kneissl – the traditional company which has its headquarters in Kufstein/Tyrol and so invests in the company’s innovative future strategies. The trademark of Kneissl – the red star – will be internationally established as a qualitative supreme leisure- and lifestyle brand.

 

Vienna/Kufstein. Kneissl CEO Andreas Gebauer commented upon Sheikh Al Jaber’s investment: “This is a great moment for Kneissl”. By means of a capital increase, Al Jaber takes over the majority (60%) of the classic company which had to date belonged in entirety to Tyrolean businessman, Fritz Unterberger’s, group of companies. For Gebauer this investor confidence confirms the success of Kneissl’s brand relaunch that started in the year 2007: “We can now continue the great and internationally successful history of Kneissl, revive the tradition of a famous and in many countries well-established sports brand, and further develop it into a lifestyle brand!” 

Al Jaber sees Kneissl as a top brand in the leisure industry

Kneissl’s potential and its vision to further develop the brand in the sports and leisure market have ultimately led Sheikh Al Jaber to invest in this pioneer from Kufstein. According to Al Jaber, the history of Kneissl shows that this classic Austrian brand possesses a lot of charisma – with especial international appeal. “All analysis points in that direction and we would now like to seize the international potential of this Austrian treasure and develop it with even more energy!” Al Jaber points out that long-term sustainability of this investment, like all of his projects, is essential. In his eyes, Kneissl has the potential to become an international top brand in the luxury leisure industry and to sustain that positioning. The impressive history of the brand and the potential synergies with his existing hotel business were the decisive motivators to invest in Kneissl.  

Unterberger sees his long fight justified

Given the bright new possibilities ahead for Kneissl, Fritz Unterberger sees his long fight for the preservation of the classic company justified: “The efforts of the past years have proven to be worth it and  now we are set to continue building Kneissl’s traditions and the international reach!”  

The power of the Kneissl brand

Already over the past months, in the course of the restructuring of the company, Gebauer uncovered the value in the “Kneissl” brand: “For decades, Kneissl was considered an innovative motor of the sports equipment industry and today it stands for power, energy, pioneering spirit, risk, innovation and individualism. Kneissl customers buy our products because of their ideology, and Kneissl becomes a part of their philosophy of life!” Apart from a new and memorably beautiful ski collection, Gebauer recently presented an innovative sportswear collection, which combined natural raw materials like cashmere with high performance design.

The new “Kneissl” lifestyle brand covers four core areas

In the long run, Kneissl is focussing on the expansion of the brand, explains Gebauer: “In the past, Kneissl’s successes meant that it has already been a lot more than just an appealing sports brand. Consequently, we are now looking to revive and strengthen this tradition – by conceiving Kneissl as a historically charged, modern leisure and lifestyle brand and by establishing it in the market.” This lifestyle concept is based on four pillars: the production of technically and aesthetically perfected sports equipment; the creation of a similarly innovative and trendy sportswear collection‘ the expansion of the Kneissl Star Lodges, with locations planned in Innsbruck, Kitzbühel and Vienna; and the implementation of a new and modern tourism concept that demands the highest quality offers and equipment – the Kneissl Sports Resort.  Via these Sports Resorts, Kneissl’s core service proposition transfers into the tourism and the upper-class accommodation segment. In these Resorts, the world and philosophy of Kneissl are no longer represented by just the sports equipment or the sportswear; they come to life through the whole consumer experience – the environment, the area, the service and the lifestyle. Depending on the location the consumer is offered a broad variety of sports possibilities, the majority with a reference to nature.  

Two Kneissl Sports Resorts are already under development

The Resort locations being considered do not include loud and screaming tourism hotspots; on the contrary, they are epitomised by those attractive, natural landscapes and impressive sceneries which lend themselves to sporting exercise in the distinctive Kneissl style. Already, two projects in Austria are under development and, according to Gebauer, international locations will follow.

Under "Products " you now find the 2008/09 models of our alpine, nordic and sportswear collection!