JOSEF FISCHER CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY

You only have to see the look in his eyes when he talks about skiing and you get a feeling for how much passion Josef Fischer has for the sport of skiing. The dedicated developer took over his parents’ business at a young age and gradually expanded the wagon-making company into the one of world’s most successful ski brands. Today, “Pepi” Fischer, as he is known by friends, has retired from public life and is enjoying retirement at Lake Attersee, Austria, where he has been living with his partner for many years and, considering his age, still enjoys good health. Josef Fischer regularly visits the company headquarters in Reid im Innkreis. Through his family foundation, he owns a majority stake in the holding company to which FISCHER SPORTS GMBH and LÖFFLER GMBH belong. The remaining shares are also held by family, in the private foundation of his deceased sister Selma Sturmberger.

This makes FISCHER the last of the ski brands in Austria still owned by the founding family. Operational management lies in the hands of long-standing employees of the family business. The supervisory board, which consists of family members and experienced entrepreneurial personalities, is also based on continuity and regional values.

The key principles that have made FISCHER a successful company are described by Josef Fischer as inventiveness and a pioneering spirit. That was what motivated his father when he dared to take the leap into self-employment in 1924 manufacturing toboggans and rack wagons. “It has been precisely this pioneering spirit and the wealth of ideas among the people at FISCHER that have always been with me throughout my entire period of creativity at the company, supporting me and driving me on,” says the successful entrepreneur. “For this I am grateful. It was the only way that FISCHER could grow to its present position and size. And it is the people at FISCHER who give me a positive outlook for the future.”