Our story
Snowflex®
The story of Briton Engineering and Snowflex is intertwined with the story of snow sports as we know them now.
Skiing itself has been around for centuries, of course, but our beginnings and growth have clearly overlapped with the birth and boom of snow sports in their modern-day form. That overlap is no coincidence.
Briton Established
BritonLift Portable Ski Lift launched at the London Ski Show
BritonMist Invented
The ‘Dryslope’ lubrication system created to improve year-round skiing experience, subsequently installed at multiple slopes around the UK
Nevis Range Opens
Briton supplies the skilift systems for the newest ski resort in Britain
Albertville Olympics
BritonLift Portable used for athletes
Snowflex Launched
Briton unveils the groundbreaking year-round snowsports surface on the BBCs Blue Peter Programme
Kendal, Calshot, Sheffield Ski Village & Halifax Snowsports Centre
Snowflex® slopes in the UK open
Arbroath, Midlothian, Gloucester, Warmwell, Aberdeen, Norwich & Rossendale
Multiple Snowflex® slopes insalled around the UK
Noeux Les Mines & Bearsden
Iconic French Snowsports slope has a Snowflex® makeover. Bearsden in Scotland gets a Snowflex®fun park
Glasgow, HMS Neptune & Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre
More Snowflex® slopes installed, including the first North American centre in Lynchburg VA
Vancouver Olympics
Snowflex® Features in opening ceremony
Ski Club of Ireland, Johannesburg, Ebbw vale
More Snowflex® slopes including the first dedicated year-round tubing facility
Sochi Olympics
Snowflex® skiiers and snowboarders who started out on the slopes in Sheffield and Halifax compete for Great Britain
YMCA of the Rockies
First dedicated Snowflex® tubing slope opens in the USA
Snowland Ankara & Wolf Mountain Ranch Branson
First Snowflex® centre built in Turkey and snowtubing added to zip-lining centre in Missouri USA
PyeongChang Olympics
Skiers and Snowboarders from Snowflex® slopes in Sheffield, Halifax, Bearsden, Aberdeen and Warmwell compete for team GB
Midlothian, Whitehouse Farm & Sleepy Hollow Iowa
Midlothian slope near Edinburgh upgrades its funpark, Whitehouse Farm in Northumberland creates iconic tubing slope from a castle and the largest Snowflex® tubing slope in the world opens in Iowa USA
Our beginnings
We started life in 1979, set up by Yorkshire engineer, Brian Thomas. A fanatical skier, Brian turned his engineer’s mind to perfecting resort facilities, one product at a time. The Britonlift Portable Ski Lift came first, showcased at the Daily Mail Ski Show; featured on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World, Pebble Mill at One and Look North; sold worldwide; then really made its mark at Winter Olympic Games in France and Japan. Then came dry slope lifts and a partnership with the world leader in passenger ropeways, Doppelmayr, before our unique BritonMist product revolutionised the performance of dry slopes.
the challenge
It was installing BritonMist on boring and dangerous artificial slopes that really inspired our current direction and growth. Frustrated by the limitations of absent design, poor civil engineering and sub-standard surfaces, we decided to provide the design and civil engineering specification and create our own surface from scratch.
real world success
Years of R&D, huge capital investment and a couple of awards later, and Snowflex® was here – a true ‘wonder’ product that’s transformed the artificial snow slope experience for everyday users and champions alike. A product that’s more than played its part in the rise of urban skiing and snowboarding, and the birth of modern freestyle in the UK.
We’re still a proudly independent family firm today. But now we’ve got hundreds of successful projects under our belt and a global reputation and customer base, as well as some new tricks up our sleeve.
