History of Ski Park Ružomberok
It is not an exception but rather a rule that searching for documents to bring nearer facts from gradual building of the ski resort and accommodation facilities on Malinô Brdo leads to a dead end. That is why unique black and white photographs that we provide to you together with some scrappy information best represent the beginning of construction on Malinô Brdo.
Hotel Malina, as one of the accommodation dominants, was built by the town Ružomberok that handed it over to be administrated by the tourism company TURISTA Ružomberok, later INTERHOTEL. The Municipal National Committee in Ružomberok issued the building permission to build cabin cableway (CC) with the technology supplier Transporta Chrudim on 21st July 1964. Total project cost amounted to CSK 11, 4 mil. and the implementation period was supposed to last for 2 years. It seems the construction and especially approval were probably not so easy because the permission to use it was issued by the Regional National Committee in Banská Bystrica in August 1967 but the certificate of practical completion for CC and also for the Hotel Hrabovo was issued only on 8th July 1994. This act was related to the effort of the town to obtain CC, the Hotel Malina, the Hotel Hrabovo and other immovable assets without re-compensation, which they managed to do in November 1994.
The town Council in Ružomberok authorized its allowance organization Športcentrum Hrabovo – Malinô Brdo to operate the resort.The Town Council approved the transformation of the Športcentrum (Sports Centre) into a join stock company with the direct input of the shareholder GOIMPEX s.r.o., Bratislava, with the interest of 51% in October 1996 (due to unsatisfactory development of the resort). So SKI PARK Ružomberok a.s. “was born” on 31st October, 1996 with the share capital of SKK 78,94 mil.
For the second half of the 90’s strong effort of the tourist resorts to find strategic investors was typical. New efficient but also expensive transport facilities together with necessary mechanism are required to attact more satisfied visitors. However, young SKI PARK was not very successful in achieving this objective to requested extent. In autumn 2000, a new shareholder – the company GLOBEX Capital s.r.o., repurchased 51% of Goimpex’s shares together with 5% of town’s shares (as a helpful step) thus stabilizing the situation of shareholders to 56%:44%. The majority shareholder, with its significant investments in the amount of ca SKK 250 mil., moved Malinô Brdo among the top resorts in Slovakia in 2001-2002. Complete cabine replacement, efficient snow cannons and caterpillar mechanisms for a quality trail maintenance lead number of visitors increased several times. The possibility to ski down the 4-kilometer trail from the top of Malinô Brdo to Hrabovo was a new contribution. Unfortunately, the resort (as most of resorts in Slovakia) did not avoid problems of frequent changes of in the top management, which does not support stabile development. We hope the last change in which the company K.S.I.,s.r.o. became the major shareholder will bring the necessary stability for the whole resort and improvement in conditions for our visitors.
