Cableways Impact Assessment Study - Final Report - saferail.nl

IA Study Concerning the Revision of the Cableways Directive
Poma
The Poma group has an extensive group of subsidiary companies located within
France and in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Austria, China, Bulgaria
and Japan. Poma has five production sites in France (in Isere, Savoie and Haute-
Savoie), one in the USA and one in China (Le Moci, 2010). However, it has been
noted that the knowledge and expertise associated with the manufacture of Poma
cableways is centred on France. The Chinese production facility for example only
assembles components that were manufactured in France in a direct attempt to keep
the know-how in France (Le Moci, 2010). Furthermore, when Poma outsourced part
of its supply chain and used a network of four subcontractors and suppliers in
Slovakia for one year, components were manufactured in Slovakia but sent back to
France for further processing and assembly (UNIDO 6 , 2003).
The Poma group has an extensive group of subsidiary companies which supply
subsystems and conduct activities required in the installation of cableways. The
following subsidiary companies are active in the Poma supply chain:
• Sigma (France) manufactures carriages and cabins for cableways and has been
part of the Poma group since 1979. In 2008 Sigma had manufactured 1,500
cabins.
• SEMER (France) conducts engineering and produces electrical equipment and
industrial automated systems and is currently 90% owned by Poma. In 2010
SEMER had 90 employees and a turnover of €17.4 million (SEMER, nd).
According to SEMER it conducts 65% of business in France, 13% in Asia, 4% in
Europe, 3% in North America, 2% in South America and 13% in Africa.
• Sacmi, which appears to be involved in the construction of Poma terminals.
• COMAG which is involved in civil engineering and the installation of cableways
in mountain locations and is based in Savoie, France. In 2006 COMAG had a
turnover of €17.5 million and had 210 employees (COMAG, nd).
Like Doppelmayr-Garaventa, Poma also appears to produce some parts in-house.
Data from STRMTG (2011b) shows that between 2004 and 2011, Poma (and its
subsidiary companies) had 171 sub-systems certified by STRMTG, these sub-systems
include driving and winding stations, rope loops, electro technical and mechanical
devices, drives and brakes and cables and cable connections, among others. As
above, while indicative of the structure of the cableways sector, these data should be
treated with caution as large companies may be certifying some products on behalf of
their suppliers. Poma also uses external suppliers for components such as wire ropes;
for example Fatzer AG supplied the wire ropes for the Leitner-Poma renovation of the
Roosevelt Island aerial tramway.
6
UNIDO – United Nations Industrial Development Organisation
Page 26