Kässbohrer Geländefahrzeug AG is a German specialized vehicle manufacturer based in

Laupheim Laupheim (; ) is a major district town in southern Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Laupheim was first mentioned in 778 and gained city rights in 1869. One of the main trading routes, from Ulm to Ravensburg and then on towards Lake ...

. It is the worldwide market leader in

snow grooming Snow grooming is the process of manipulating snow for recreational uses with a tractor, snowmobile, piste caterpillar, truck or snowcat towing specialized equipment. The process is used to maintain ski hills, cross-country ski trails and snow ...

and

sand cleaning machines Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural cl ...

marketed under the brands ''PistenBully'' and ''BeachTech''.

History

The company was formed in 1994 through a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

of the snow and sand divisions during the breakup of

Karl Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke Karl Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke GmbH was a German vehicle manufacturer in Ulm. Its products were buses, Coach (bus), coaches, vehicle transporters, Trailer (vehicle), trailers and special vehicles like Snow grooming, snow groomer vehicles. The ...

. It was publicly traded from 1998 until it was taken private in 2015, when Ludwig Merckle's LuMe holding company, which had previously owned over 95% of shares, bought out minority shareholders for an aggregate EUR 13.8 million.

Products

PistenBully

Kässbohrer's largest division is snow grooming vehicles, which represents 90% of the company's revenue. The division develops, manufactures, sells and services equipment for maintaining ski hills. The PistenBully brand dominates the worldwide market for such machinery.

BeachTech

Kässbohrer launched a separate line of beach grooming machines in 1991.

PowerBully

In 2014, Kässbohrer acquired Soft Track Supply Inc., a manufacturer of niche tracked utility vehicles, and renamed the product line PowerBully. Soft Track had operated since 1989 and was based in Cartersville, Georgia.

References