“Rollers and Skis” is a ski service centre in Sigulda offering high-precision ski maintenance for both professional athletes and enthusiasts. In the “Digitalisation Success Stories” programme, company founder Ingmārs Briedis – a former Latvian national team skier and ski technician – explains how an everyday problem led to a unique solution: a ski locker system available to customers 24 hours a day.
The phrase “leave your skis by the bin” is not an exaggeration, but something that arose from a real-life situation. Customers wanted to drop off their equipment when the service centre was closed – late in the evening or early in the morning before training sessions and competitions. There was no secure and convenient solution, so the company had to improvise.
“Leave your skis by the bin – well, that doesn’t sound great,” says Briedis, describing the moment when it became clear that things could not continue this way.
Ski servicing is highly precise work, where experience and the ability to adapt quickly are essential. Briedis, who worked with the Latvian national team’s ski service crew at the recent Olympic Games, explains that decisions often have to be made intuitively: “Sometimes you have to read the tea leaves a little to predict what the weather will be like the next day.”
He adds that teamwork enabled them to achieve an almost perfect result: “Taking everything into account, I think we got it right 99% of the time.”
Skis Don’t Follow Business Hours
The idea for the locker system, however, did not originate at the Olympic Games. It grew out of everyday work at the company’s service centre in Sigulda, where customer habits and needs called for a new approach. People go skiing outside standard business hours, meaning that ski servicing also needs to be flexible and adapted to real life.
While searching for a solution, the company realised that nothing suitable existed on the market. Standard parcel lockers are not designed to accommodate skis, and their systems are intended for parcel deliveries rather than servicing customers’ sports equipment.
There was only one answer: if the solution does not exist, you have to create it yourself.
“Rollers and Skis” therefore decided to develop its own system from scratch. A specially designed locker unit was created to accommodate skis up to 2.15 metres long. At the same time, a customised IT system was developed, incorporating customer registration, remote access and automated notifications.
“The IT system behind it – how to operate everything remotely – was the biggest challenge,” Briedis explains.
A Solution You Couldn’t Simply Buy
The result is a service available 24 hours a day, allowing customers to drop off and collect their equipment whenever it suits them. This significantly changes the traditional approach to ski servicing and eliminates the need for inconvenient compromises or for staff to be constantly available.
At the same time, the company has developed its ski servicing capabilities to one of the highest technological levels in Latvia. “Rollers and Skis” is the only ski service centre of this technological level in the country, using a world-class CNC stone-grinding machine from Italy. The equipment can restore the ski base and create a structure similar to the tread pattern of a car tyre.
However, the ski locker solution was not perfect from day one either.
“There is essentially no such thing as a perfect product,” Briedis says, stressing that the most important thing is to start and continue improving the idea along the way.
“You have an early-stage product? That’s fine – start working on it. You simply have to start doing it,” he encourages other entrepreneurs.
The company is now looking beyond Latvia, seeking partners and investors to scale the solution internationally.
“You have to say that you need funding – nobody is going to come up to you and ask,” Briedis says, emphasising that growth also requires the courage to talk about your ideas and ambitions.
Listen to real stories from entrepreneurs about how digitalisation helps businesses grow, compete and export in the “Digitalisation Success Stories” series every Thursday shortly after 14:00 on Radio SWH and Radio SWH TV.
Latvian companies have access to a wide range of state- and European Union-funded support for business development, brought together on the unified business portal business.gov.lv and its subsite liaa.business.gov.lv. Companies can find information there about various programmes, ranging from funding for innovation and new product development, export promotion and international cooperation opportunities to grants for digitalisation, technology implementation and productivity improvements.
The project is co-financed by the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility (NextGenerationEU) and the Cohesion Policy Programme 2021–2027. The preparation of this article was funded with support from the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.
