Leitner Poma of America: Calling Grand Junction Home for Nearly 50 Years

Originally published in the Spring 2020 issue of SPOKE+BLOSSOM.

Photos Courtesy of Carl Scofield

If you’ve ridden chairlifts in North America during the past half-century, chances are many of these lifts had their origin in Grand Junction.

Since the early 1980s, Leitner-Poma of America, then known simply as Poma, has been headquartered in Western Colorado.

“When Poma was looking to expand in North America in 1980, the Grand Junction airport was a ski industry hub with flights coming in and buses going out to many of the Colorado resorts,” explains Daren Cole, president of Leitner-Poma.

“Easy access to Interstate 70 and the railroad, along with the climate, were also determining factors,” he says, adding that until 2007 when Leitner-Poma moved to its current facility, much of the manufacturing was done outdoors.

Rick Spear, who preceded Cole as Leitner- Poma president and has worked for the company since 1978, agrees that the city’s central location, between numerous Colorado and Utah ski resorts, was important, as was a proposal at that time to build a gondola system in nearby Parachute to access Exxon’s oil shale work site.

And while Exxon’s plan never came to fruition, the concept of using ropeways to move people to and from work has growing resonance for Leitner-Poma today.

WE MOVE PEOPLE

The banner at the top of the Leitner-Poma website boldly proclaims, “We Move People.” And move people, they do.

Leitner-Poma of America is within Italy’s High Technologies Industry Group (HTI) and is a sister company to Leitner A.G. in Italy and Poma S.A. in France. Together, these three companies transport approximately 8,000,000 people per hour, worldwide.

In North America, most of these people are transported on ski area chairlifts, gondolas and trams, with forms of urban transportation as a small but growing business component.

On the transport side, Leitner-Poma installed and operates the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City and an automated people mover at Miami International Airport.

And while contracts have yet to be awarded, there are at least 12 North American cities proposing urban ropeway systems. Among these are Albany, New York and Vancouver, British Columbia, according to Peter Landsman, the publisher of LiftBlog.com.

“Urban transportation is becoming a huge focus for Leitner-Poma in the United States,” says Cole, explaining that the cost of an urban gondola is a small fraction of the cost of adding buses, bridges or subways to a city.

Energy savings is another important component. “50 buses use 50 motors. With a ropeway, one motor is all they need,” says Cole.

Still, ski resort chairlifts remain essential to the company’s bottom line, with Leitner-Poma building an average of six to 10 new lifts each year and providing service on existing lifts from Grand Junction and three additional North American offices.

NO TWO LIFTS ARE ALIKE

In 2007, Leitner-Poma built a 90,000-square- foot facility on 15 acres near the Grand Junction Regional Airport. The move, with assistance from the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, resulted in an increase in employees and indoor manufacturing capacity.

Currently, Leitner-Poma has 201 North American employees, with 159 in Grand Junction, the majority of whom are engineers and skilled tradespeople involved in design and manufacturing.

A challenge for these employees, and one that keeps their jobs endlessly interesting, is that every new lift starts from scratch.

“No two lifts in the world are exactly the same,” explains Scott Bierman, who works in business development. “Every lift is built on unique topography and dependent upon the layout of the resort. None of this is ever the same,” he says, adding that building a lift or ropeway is like putting together a giant puzzle.

“We are very fortunate to call Grand Junction and the Western Slope home. The location is a key factor, but more so the community support and local work force are an integral part of our success.
— Daren Cole, president of Leitner-Poma.”

For a new lift, the process begins with surveying and engineering. Leitner-Poma engineers — civil, electrical and mechanical — design everything from towers and foundations, to lift stations, terminals and bull wheels, along with the electrical brains that control lift operations.

While some components come from Europe — notably Swiss rope and Italian grips and chairs — 80 percent of each lift is designed and manufactured in Grand Junction.

“This is what sets us apart,” says Cole, noting that most of what is built in Colorado is handcrafted from raw steel by skilled machinists and welders.

LiftBlog’s Landsman agrees. “Leitner- Poma creates a customized product that meets the needs of North American ski areas of all different sizes. Whereas a Doppelmayr lift in North America is exactly what you’d see in Austria, Leitner-Poma’s terminals and towers

are completely specific to, and designed for, the North American market.”

The flexibility to provide each resort with exactly the lift they want has garnered Leitner- Poma with tremendous loyalty, especially in Colorado where 100 percent of the operating chairlifts at Aspen Snowmass, Breckenridge, Crested Butte and Powderhorn are from the Leitner-Poma family.

With two Leitner-Poma lifts on order for 2020, Arapahoe Basin will join the club.

AN EXPANDING FAMILY OF COMPANIES

In 2016, Leitner-Poma of America acquired Skytrac, a fixed-grip chairlift manufacturer. Fixed-grip lifts operate at a constant speed, rather than slowing down for loading and unloading like high-speed detachable lifts.

Skytrac remains based in Salt Lake City and serves an important niche company as ski resorts replace aging infrastructure.

According to Michael Lane with the National Ski Areas Association, 80 percent of fixed-grip lifts in North America have been installed since 1970. And while resorts are diligent in repairing and upgrading existing chairlift stock, at some point, replacement becomes the most viable option.

In addition to Leitner-Poma, HTI’s investment in Grand Junction includes a North American office for Leitwind, a gearless wind turbine manufacturer, along with sales and service offices for Prinoth and Demaclenko.

Snow groomer manufacturer Prinoth has had a consistent, lengthy sales and service presence in Grand Junction, while Demaclenko, which produces snowmaking equipment, is just getting established in North America under the leadership of Rick Spear.

LOCAL IMPACT

In 2017, the overall revenue for HTI Group topped 1 billion Euros, or about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, with Leitner-Poma of America representing over 50 million dollars in annual sales.

The economic impact in the Grand Valley is crucial, given the company’s size and manufacturing capability. “I can’t think of anyone else in town who manufactures products on this scale,” says Sarah Lanci, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado Mesa University. “The equipment necessary to build and install chairlifts is huge. Helicopters are needed!”

Each fall, Lanci takes her students to tour Leitner-Poma’s facilities.

In addition to showing students specific components of the manufacturing process, Lanci believes the tours underscore the relevance between their classes and an engineering career.

“Visiting Leitner-Poma gives our students an idea of what they can pursue and aspire to in the future,” explains Lanci. “It adds relevance to our course work and inspires them. CMU is fortunate to have Leitner-Poma here.”

As for Cole, he fully concurs.

“We are very fortunate to call Grand Junction and the Western Slope home. The location is a key factor, but more so the community support and local work force are an integral part of our success,” he says. “We are proud to be a part of this community.”