“We are known for certain rides,” concedes sales manager Theo van Zwieten, “but a lot of parks don’t know our full programme. It’s like, ‘Mondial? Oh, they build Ferris Wheels don’t they?’ But that’s only a small part of it.”

Indeed, like several ride manufacturers, the company’s roots come from outside the amusement industry. Owned by husband and wife Hette and Froukje Knijpstra, Mondial Fair Attractions was born out of a family firm founded in 1974 in the north of Holland. Using the name ‘Knijpstra’ in its title, the company built cranes and lifting equipment for the maritime industry but after being asked to construct some parts for a Ferris Wheel a few years later was split into two and renamed.

“The existing name was a little difficult to say outside the Netherlands,” notes Froukje. Another family name, Roodberg, was chosen for the cranes business, while the rides division was given the moniker Mondial (as well as meaning”worldwide” it was also the name of an old motorcycle brand, and Hette is a big bike fan).

More work on Ferris Wheels followed and then, in 1982, designs were completed for the Tornado/Sky Flyer looping boat ride. Construction of this ride was licensed to Vekoma because Mondial didn’t have enough production capacity at the time to cope. The ride’s enjoyed relative success until cheaper adaptations started appearing on the market. “We feared someone would copy it, and the Italians did,” notes Froukje. Ever since, Mondial has tried to be as individual as possible with the rides it designs.

Despite making some rollercoaster cars and a braking system in the early years, it’s stayed out of this market because, “there are too many competitors.”

“The ride that really pushed us into the market,” says Froukje, “was the Supernova.” This popular family ride comprises one long 48-seat gondola sandwiched between two arms that can turn either in parallel or independent of each other as the gondola swings from side to side.

Top Scan, top hit

A succession of new rides followed including the Roll Over, Shake, Inferno, Swinger, Splash Over and Top Scan, which with its distinctive sweeping ‘windmill’ motion, remains one of Mondial's best selling rides to date.

More recently the company has enjoyed success on the travelling circuit with its Capriolo extreme propeller ride, while parks such as Paramount’s Canada’s Wonderland and Terra Mitica in Spain have added the Revolution swinging pendulum ride.

Mondial has also played its part in the market for Ferris Wheels operating as standalone tourist attractions. This summer a 55-metre ride previously operated at Fantasy Island in England was moved to Royal Windsor near London where it was operated by PWR Events as a panoramic viewing structure. Over the winter, it’s performing the same role in Milton Keynes, and will then either be sold on or moved to another UK city.

“They choose our wheel in Windsor because we could get into the park and install the ride without a mobile crane,” reveals Theo. “It also had to be broken down very quickly at the end of the summer.”

Further north, visitors to the English seaside resort of Bridlington will be amongst the first to sample a Mondial wheel with enclosed, air-conditioned gondolas when Harrison Leisure takes delivery of one of two new 45-metre wheels Mondial will deliver in 2007, the other bound for Australia.

Two companies, one vision

Despite their apparent independence to those in their respective industries, Mondial and Roodberg have shared the same 7-hectare manufacturing facility from the very beginning. Located in the small town of Terband in Holland’s Friesland province, the Frisian language is widely spoken here and at a separate office building nearby which houses the management suite, design and sales staff. More recently, a smaller factory was acquired about 20km away, which serves primarily as a paintshop but also benefits from direct canal access. “We have used the water to ship rides in the past.”

The main plant at Terband is believed to be among the most comprehensive ride building facilities in Europe. Not that you’d know if you stumbled upon it by chance. Mondial and Roodberg both like to maintain an air of secrecy to what they do, and you won’t find either company name on the nondescript gates outside.

Many ride parts are built in-house, from copious supplies of high-grade Dutch steel. “We try and source only Dutch or German parts and materials where possible.” A giant, 15-netre-high warehouse, soon to be joined by another big unit, is used for assembly, as well as storage for several part-exchanged rides and a vast selection of spare parts – from restraint bars and seat padding to gears boxes and hydraulic pumps. This large demand on space and capital is appreciated by Mondial’s customers, if not its accountant (“he keeps saying we’ve got too much money tied-up in spares!)

The same day Park World visited, a showman from Germany had been over to pick up a new gearbox for his Capriolo ride. “If we’d had to order that in, he’d have been waiting six months,” details Theo. “Instead, he will have been up and running again in less than 24 hours.”

The relationship with Roodberg and the security it provides means that Mondial isn’t forced to produce masses of rides just to keep the factory busy. There’s a very neat balance between peak delivery times for the two products: Autumn/fall for cranes, Easter/spring for amusement rides. At present, Mondial turns out around 10 rides per year.

The new workshop at Terband and the decision to produce more compact rides fortravelling customers should also increase production capacity a little; though don’t expect a massive leap. “We will do it step by step. We see with the other guys, it has happened quite frequently that companies have gone bang, and that is not our way of doing business. Mondial has never gone bankrupt,” highlights Theo.

Solid rides, solid reputation

This is a company as sure-footed as some of its rides. “I don’t believe our rides are over engineered, but they are not under engineered either,” says Froukje. “We like to put as much into them as we can, and I think our customers appreciate the quality, reliability and safety a Mondial ride offers.”

“What you pay is what you get,” adds Theo, “and it also affects the resale value of your equipment.”

By refusing to compete on price, Mondial has managed to avoid outsourcing production overseas. Not that this has stopped becoming a victim of plagiarism from manufacturers in the Far East, with the Top Scan in particular.

“In a way it worries us, yes. I have seen pictures of it and it is serious. But we know, because we’ve engineered it, what the stresses are, how strong the structure has to be, all the calculations, and I assume they don’t. People will see the difference. Hopefully parks will take their technical people with them before they make a decision, and if it comes into Europe, then we have a full patent on it. Now the Italians know how we have always felt, because they are being copied more than we are with the Top Scan. We are a production company and I would rather we put our energy into producing and not fighting a battle with whoever.”

Recently Mondial designers put their efforts into overhauling the predecessor to the Top Scan, the Inferno. Known as the Diablo, the new ride is currently travelling in Switzerland and involves a suspended seat split gondola attached to the end of a characteristic sloping Top Scan-style arm/boom. As the boom rotates, the two pieces of the gondola also rotate and flip from side to side.

Already finished and currently undergoing final tests at the factory is the first Heart Breaker, Mondial’s most compact ride to date. It’s also the first the company has built that can be accommodated on one trailer, but not the last.

“The industry is increasingly looking for good capacity, easy to assemble and install rides,” notes Theo. “On the fairs, building time also has to be very short because labour costs are more and more these days.”

It is hoped that this, and other new single-trailer rides like the Jetforce, will open up a wider market for the Dutch supplier. At the same time, it is producing beefier versions of some of its existing rides, and toying with new concepts like the Drifter/High Speed Rally Cross, for parks and other static venues.

“Parks focus too much on coasters,” believes Theo – and he reckons he has just the right thing to shake them out of it. “We challenge them to ride the Capriolo for instance, and now with the Quattro Capriolo we have a 32 or 40-seater solution that offers something new.”

These and all other rides in the catalogue are available via a recently expanded sales force. Last summer Mondial appointed Leisure Labs as its representative for North America. “Mondial has some great quality products and we look forward to introducing to more parks in the States,” states the company’s Jim Hartley.

But with room for at the factory for just 10 rides a year, he’d better get those orders in quick!

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