Amer Sports plans to invest BGN7.8 million, or $5.5 million at current exchange rates, to expand its Pamporovo ski factory in the Bulgarian mountain resort of Chepelare over the next three years. When completed, the project will double the factory’s annual capacity to one million skis.
Amer Sports, which owns the Salomon and Atomic ski brands, bought the factory, which already manufactures half of the Finnish company’s skis, for €5 million in 2008. By the end of 2012, Amer Sports will have invested BGN 40 millon in the factory, which now employs 640 people, according to the office of Bulgaria's Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traikov.
The expansion is expected to create another 100 jobs in the high-unemployment region of Smolyan. The factory is 100% owned by Amer Sports Holding GmbH, an Austrian subsidiary of Amer Sports Corporation.
