WINTERSTEIGER Italia: A Successful Family-Owned Business
On June 1, 2000, Guiseppe “Sepl” Thaler and his sons Christian and Stefan founded the WINTERSTEIGER subsidiary in Italy for sales of ski service machines and rental systems. The background: WINTERSTEIGER—and especially its customers—were very dissatisfied with the previous distribution partner.
The Thaler family business had already been a distribution partner for Skid and Ski2, which had been acquired by WINTERSTEIGER. This connection led to the establishment of the joint venture between WINTERSTEIGER and the Thaler company.
Top Priority: Winning Back Customers
Although Giuseppe Thaler was already well known in the Trentino-South Tyrol region as a sales representative for skis, bindings, and ski service machines, the first few years were very difficult: Many customers had had bad experiences and first had to be convinced once again of WINTERSTEIGER’s service quality and reliability. WINTERSTEIGER Italia presented itself to each customer as a reputable and efficient partner and, step by step and machine by machine, achieved a turnaround.
In 2005, WINTERSTEIGER Italia added the seed breeding division to its product portfolio, and since 2020, SERRA sawmills have been sold in Italy.