"Then as now, it's about looking to the future, being open to new ideas and having the courage to break new ground without losing our footing."
This is what Stefan Frauscher writes in the anniversary newspaper for the 90th anniversary of a family business, which he runs together with his brother Michael and his cousin Andrea Frauscher-Oberfrank in the third generation. He thus reveals the secret of the success of a boatyard that is exceptional in many respects.
What seems like squaring the circle appears to be Frauscher neither contradictory nor unattainable. The balancing act between the company's still regional roots and its international orientation is evidently just as successful as the fusion of tradition and innovation. Whether the popular wooden motorboats between five and six metres long with outboard motors such as Fisch, Starfisch, Untertasse and Delphin in the 1950s and 1960s or the modern motor and electric yachts with the unmistakable Frauscher design such as St. Tropez, Valencia, Lido, Riviera, Benaco, Fantom, the award-winning 717 GT and 1017 GT through to the current flagship 1414 Demon - all were and are manufactured on Lake Traunsee in Upper Austria.
And yet the shipyard, which employs 50 people, has become a global player. Today, Frauscher has representatives in 14 countries, including the USA, Russia and Korea, and since 2012 - the year in which the new production facility in Ohlsdorf north of Gmunden was inaugurated - also has a base in Port Adriano on Mallorca.
A development that Engelbert Frauscher would hardly have dared to dream of when he founded a boatyard on the Old Danube in Vienna in 1927. He had learnt his trade at the Ratz boatyard in St. Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang, but was then drawn to the Austrian capital for economic reasons. He soon made a name for himself there, particularly by building the legendary O dinghy, which was sailed at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The Second World War also hit Frauscher hard. His workshop and home were bombed, so the family started again in 1945 in Gmunden - on the site on Traunsteinstraße, where Frauscher now also runs a boat harbour.
The fact that the American occupying forces have taken over the local yacht club soon proves to be an opportunity for Engelbert Frauscher. The accomplished boat builder was just what the Americans needed to refit the battered boats for them. With the withdrawal of the U.S. Army, the company's rise begins; his sons Ernst and Hans also join the business. Wooden boat building flourishes, a sailing school is opened and the first polyester boat is produced in 1969. The 540 Portofino is the hit in electric boat hire and is still in use on lakes in Germany and Austria today.
1982 marks another milestone in the history of the family business: Hans Frauscher becomes world sailing champion with the H-boat, which the shipyard has built over 700 times to date, and the third generation joins the company with his son Michael. Ernst Frauscher's daughter Andrea - who manages the business in the harbour - and Hans Frauscher's youngest son Stefan have also been on board since 1996. The trio developed the family business into one of the most modern boatyards in Europe. Their guiding principle also determines the future course:
"History writes future."
Info: Frauscher Bootswerft GmbH & Co KG, Betriebspark Ehrenfeld 3, A-4694 Ohlsdorf, Tel. 0043/(0)7612/63 65 50, Fax 63 65 511
