Atomic (company)

Atomic Austria GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1955
Seat	Altenmarkt im Pongau , Austria
Number of employees	750
Branch	Sporting goods manufacturer
Website	www.atomic.com

The Atomic Austria GmbH is an Austrian company that manufactures skiing article. It is wholly owned by the Finnish Amer Sports Group, which also includes Wilson , Suunto , Precor, Volant and Salomon . Atomic is the world leader in alpine skiing.

history

View from the B 99 to the Altenmarkt plant

Alpine skis from Salomon and Atomic brands

Alois Rohrmoser founded the company in 1955. In 1966, with the expansion of the factory in Wagrain, industrial ski production began. Another plant was built in Altenmarkt im Pongau in 1971 .

When the company began producing skis and ski items in a factory in the Bulgarian town of Chepelare in the Rhodope Mountains in 1981, Atomic was the first western company to open a factory in an Eastern Bloc country.

The first ski that was produced was the Atomic SL1, which is still produced under the same name "SL" to this day. It was further developed up to the SL 12.

Atomic Ski is represented in ski racing. The Austrian ski racers Olga Pall and Annemarie Pröll , as well as the American Bill Johnson, are inextricably linked to the rise to a global brand . In the past few years, various Atomic drivers have been on the podium, including Marcel Hirscher , Mikaela Shiffrin , Benjamin Raich , Michael Walchhofer , Daniel Albrecht , Renate Götschl , Michaela Kirchgasser and Hermann Maier . In total, around 50 racers are sponsored by Atomic. In recent years, the brand has also established itself in the freeski sector and has prominent riders in its ranks.

bankruptcy

In the early 1990s, Atomic's financial difficulties grew as a result of problems switching to shell ski technology with a high rate of rejects and failures in the booming snowboard market. In 1994 BAWAG filed for bankruptcy over Atomic, which was legally repealed in March 2006 after the proceedings were concluded.

Speculation of wrongdoing in bankruptcy proceedings

The high bankruptcy rate of 93% for BAWAG PSK and 73% for the creditors fueled speculation that bankruptcy would not have been necessary and financial restructuring would have been possible. So the company moved within its approved credit line until bankruptcy was opened. In addition, there would have been a positive going concern forecast for the company for the period after the insolvency.

The long-time company boss Alois Rohrmoser refused to accept BAWAG people in top positions at Atomic. At the same time he negotiated with a group of restructuring companies, to which he wanted to cede up to 85 percent of his shares. According to Atomic's trustee Vavrovsky, BAWAG felt ignored and as a result Atomic made the loans due. BAWAG had initially drawn up a continuation or takeover concept. According to this, BAWAG should have brought in 500 million schillings from overseas into Atomic. Suddenly, however, the plan was no longer pursued. KTM boss Stefan Pierer , who advised Rohrmoser during the crisis, suspects that BAWAG suddenly needed money to cover speculative losses due to the sudden collapse of its Caribbean business (see BAWAG affair ). In fact, payments were made to the Irish BAWAG subsidiary, which was involved in the Caribbean business.

After the bankruptcy proceedings, the Finnish company Amer acquired Atomic in November 1994 for a price of 918.7 million shillings (66.8 million euros). In January 1995, BAWAG PSK again acquired ten percent of Atomic and paid 350 million schillings (25.4 million euros) for it. Atomic was thus worth 3.5 billion and no longer just 918.7 million schillings after just over a month. These transactions in the course of the Atomic bankruptcy, as well as the bankruptcy itself, are among other things the subject of the banking investigation committee of the Austrian National Council in 2007.

Banking Investigation Board

According to the chairman of the committee, the FPÖ politician Martin Graf , BAWAG exerted massive pressure to cover up the exact course of the Atomic bankruptcy. Public liability suits and criminal charges have been brought against an investigating public prosecutor and investigating police officers. In addition, BAWAG boss Helmut Elsner had asked the interior minister at the time, Karl Schlögl ( SPÖ ), to "whistle back" the investigating executive officer, chief inspector Werner Mayer. Important pieces of evidence were also withheld from the committee of inquiry. For example, the National Bank and the Financial Market Authority had agreed which files would go to the committee: an approach that most parliamentary groups consider illegal. Green MP Werner Kogler suspected abuse of office in this connection and demanded consequences.