founded 2000 headquarters grand junction colorado key people rick spear president number of employees 75 website leitner poma.com cte leitner poma of america is a north american aerial lift manufacturer based in grand junction colorado . it is the north american subsidiary of french based poma which is owned by the italian company leitner technologies part of the leitner group . the north american company was formed in 2000 when the seeber group owner of leitner bought poma . 1 leitner poma s only competitor is doppelmayr usa which is based in salt lake city . leitner poma supplies lifts to the united states canada new zealand and australia . contents 1 poma of america before merger 1.1 designs of poma of america 2 leitner lifts before merger 2.1 designs of leitner in america 3 merger of leitner and poma 4 after the merger 4.1 designs after the merger 5 purchase of skytrac lifts inc 6 references 7 external links poma of america before merger edit a leitner poma fixed grip alpha terminal at white hills ski resort near clarenville nl canada a 1988 poma high speed quad the rainier express lift at crystal mountain washington a 1990 poma high speed quad the beaver run superchair at breckenridge ski resort colorado jean pomagalski invented the detachable pomalift surface tow in 1936 and first brought it to north america in 1952 . the first north american poma brand chairlift was installed in 1958 in squaw valley california for the 1960 winter olympics . 2 poma s grand junction colorado manufacturing facility was opened in 1981 in order for poma to better serve the north american market . 2 in 1973 the company built its first gondola in the united states at big sky resort in montana removed in 2008 . in the following years poma built gondolas at whistler blackcomb british columbia ; squaw valley california replaced by north america s only funitel ; stowe mountain resort vermont ; and stratton vermont among others . 3 in total the company built 205 chairlifts surface lifts and gondolas before merging with leitner . 4 designs of poma of america edit detachable terminals alpha falcon falcon falcon gondola competition challenger competition gondola phatboy grips tb 41 double tb 41 omega carriers falcon competition omega fixed grip terminals delta alpha carriers falcon leitner lifts before merger edit leitner had a limited history in north america prior to its merger with poma of america . between 1997 and 2001 it installed 21 lifts in the united states and canada . 4 customers included fernie alpine resort kimberley alpine resort and big white in british columbia ; mount norquay and lake louise in alberta ; and jay peak vermont . 3 designs of leitner in america edit detachable terminals automatic quintessential plan de gralba grips la48 95 fixed grip n a merger of leitner and poma edit the independence superchair at breckenridge ski resort a typical high speed six pack the silver fir high speed quad at the summit at snoqualmie washington in 2000 the seeber group of italy purchased pomagalski s.a. of france . although the two remained separate in europe the north american operations of each were combined . while it was announced as a merger of leitner lifts usa canada and poma of america leitner s operations were mostly folded into poma s. the last leitner designed lifts were installed in 2001 and since 2002 all lifts produced by the company have been of poma s design . in 2010 leitner poma adapted the lpa detachable grip which is cosmetically slightly different from the omega t grip . the terminal design also changed with the introduction of the new grip . the first lift in the united states with the new grip was the high noon express at vail ski resort . in 2012 leitner poma adapted a new retro tower design that is a cross of the design of tower heads on poma chairlifts built in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the design used since 1994 . after the merger edit one of the london eye s 32 passenger capsules in 2009 leitner poma of america moved into a new headquarters in grand junction along with other companies owned by leitner technologies including leitwind a manufacturer of wind turbines and prinoth a maker of snow groomers . 5 colorado governor bill ritter attended the grand opening ceremony which took place during the financial crisis of 2007 2010 at which leitner poma promised to create 100 new jobs . 6 the company recently won the contract to build the replacement roosevelt island tramway in new york city 7 and is also the supplier of the passenger capsules for both the london eye ferris wheel in england and the high roller ferris wheel to be built on the las vegas strip . 8 leitner poma s market share continues to trail significantly behind doppelmayr . 9 as both poma and as leitner poma the company has built some of the most notable lifts in america including among others the only double loading chairlift in north america quicksilver super6 and the highest chairlift in north america imperial express superchair topping at 12 840 feet 3 910 m both located at breckenridge ski resort in colorado . designs after the merger edit the kensho superchair at breckenridge ski resort is one of a number of new leitner poma lifts with the lpa design immediately following the leitner poma merge there were no noticeable aesthetic changes in the designs of the chairlifts as all lifts built until 2010 utilized the omega t grip and terminal . the first noticeable changes were when the lpa grip and terminal were introduced in 2010 replacing the omega grip . also a new tower design was introduced in 2012 replacing a design used since 1994 . detachable terminals phatboy terminal omega terminal 1998 2011 lpa terminal 2010 current grips omega t grip 1998 2011 lpa grip 2010 current carriers omega carrier fixed grip terminals alpha terminal drive z type return n a return carriers omega carrier purchase of skytrac lifts inc edit skytrac is an american aerial ropeway engineering manufacturing and installation company located in salt lake city ut . since 2010 skytrac has focused on the north american majority market of new fixed grip installations . they also provide modification and retrofitting services to the aging chairlift segment of the ski chairlift transportation and amusement ride industries . leitner poma purchased skytrac lifts in april of 2016 . this acquisition gives leitner poma a stronger presence in the fixed grip and retrofit market in north america . references edit http www.leitner poma.com merger1.htm a b http www.leitner poma.com timeline.htm a b http skilifts.org install na.htm a b http skilifts.org install survey.htm http www.leitner lifts.com content.asp l 2 & subc 2789 & idmen 150 http www.gjsentinel.com news content news stories 2009 01 26 012709 leitner main.html cxtype rss & cxsvc 7 & cxcat 7 http www.scribd.com doc 7704003 roosevelt island tram modernization recommendation and supplemental material colorado s leitner poma to build cabins for huge observation wheel in las vegas http skilifts.org install na2008.htm external links edit leitner poma s website poma s website leitner group s website http www.skilifts.org old chairlift facts liftid lp.htm chairlift on skilifts.org skytrac website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title leitner poma & oldid 744571353 categories aerial lift manufacturersmanufacturing companies based in colorado navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 16 october 2016 at 03 13 . text is 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