Poma

For the village, see Poma, Bangladesh.

Poma or Pomagalski SA is an international corporation, headquartered in France, which builds passenger conveyances using cable systems, including fixed and detachable aerial chairlifts, gondolas, funiculars, aerial tramways and surface lifts. Poma has installed more than six thousand systems in fifty-four countries which transport eight million passengers each hour.

While the term Poma lift technically refers to any Poma installation, it is mostly commonly used as a nostalgic term for a platter lift or T-bar, as it was the company's first and most popular system.

The majority of Poma systems are in ski areas, but can also be found at amusement parks and in scenic locations as skyrides and peoplemovers.

It mainly operates in Europe and China.

History

The founder, Jean Pomagalski, of Polish descendants, began building ski lifts in 1935. The first systems used detachable technology in a surface lift.

In 1953, Pomalift Inc. established itself in the U.S. In 1958, they built their first chairlift in the U.S., followed in 1960 with chairlifts at Squaw Valley for the Winter Olympics. In 1981 they established manufacturing capability in Grand Junction, Colorado at their North American headquarters.

They build the first detachable quad chairlift in 1981, installed at Sept Laux, France (in the Dauphiné Alps).

In 1984, Poma installed the world's highest gondola lift towers at 358 ft (109 m) for the Mississippi Aerial River Transit across the Mississippi River, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Industry

Poma is one of only a few remaining lift manufacturers in North America. With the recent demise of Riblet and Lift Engineering (popularly known as Yan), their only major competitor is Doppelmayr CTEC. Poma's market share has recently been decreasing. Poma currently holds about 40% of this market, while Doppelmayr holds the other 60%. Poma merged with Leitner in 2002 to form Leitner-Poma of America.