Almost 100 years ago, a vacancy for a coachbuilder lured my grandfather, Hermann Pangratz, from Tarrenz to St. Anton am Arlberg. Back then, nobody could have imagined the success story that would unfold.
Patrik Pangratz:
Although there were very few skiers on the slopes in the late 1920s, my grandfather and his wife Pia recognised the signs of the times and opened one of the first sports shops in St. Anton. As if that weren’t enough, this pioneer soon began to stock the shelves with his own skis, crafted from ash wood.
Like father, like son: in 1966, my parents Toni and Irene took over the business. Even back then, over 500 pairs of hire skis were available to guests. Production also grew steadily. The staff produced several hundred pairs of skis a year in the workshop, which was just 70 m² in size.
Yet despite the success and high quality, the era of wooden skis was drawing to a close. The Kneissl company began mass-producing plastic skis on an industrial scale,
thus heralded the next generation of skis. This was no reason for Irene and Toni to give up the business, as my parents had, in good time, expanded the ski hire side of the business alongside the sports shop. And so, in 1986, I was able to join a successful family business. Like my father, after 10 ‘years of apprenticeship’ in the business, I took over the business together with my wife, Brigitte.
Micheal Ess:
In 1970, a small wooden house measuring 25 m² was the only sports shop in the Nasserein district. Before the railway line was relocated, there was just a T-bar lift there, and my parents, Erich and Brigitte Ess, supplied the skiers using it with all their skiing equipment. During the winter months, my father ran the shop, whilst in the summer he worked as a joiner.
In 1978, the new building in Nasserein was constructed, and the ski school’s office was also integrated into the shop at that time. I joined the business in 1989 and was given increasing areas of responsibility in the years that followed. In 2000, I got married and took over my parents’ business entirely, together with my wife Daniela.
The year 2000 marked the greatest milestone in the history of both our companies, when we decided to merge. There were many reasons for this move, but looking back, I can say that the World Ski Championships certainly played a decisive role.
In the wake of this major event, no stone was left unturned, and even the railway station in the centre of St. Anton was relocated. This brought St. Anton even closer together, as the division of the town by the railway line was finally brought to an end. The new Nassereinbahn, built in the run-up to the World Ski Championships, sparked a real boom in the Nasserein district. This created one of the most important access points to the ski area. It was these far-reaching changes that led us to decide on the merger.
The starting signal for Intersport Arlberg had been given. A name with visionary ambitions. Even back then, we both had the idea of creating a network spanning the entire Arlberg region. Yet it was to take another 17 years before this goal could finally become a reality.
Following several shops in St. Anton and St. Christoph, the first step into Vorarlberg was taken in 2016 with the shop at the Flexenbahn. For the 2017 summer season, the long-held dream of a branch in Lech finally came true. We now operate 10 shops around the Arlberg. This certainly does not mark the end of our expansion. As is often the case in a family business, the next generation – Paul and Pia Pangratz (the children of Brigitte and Patrick Pangratz) – are already raring to go. And from the Ess family, Nina, Lena and little David will be joining us at some point too...