So the backlash is fierce, brutal at times, epic day on the mountain Bro? how did you like your 6 runs and 4000 vert, and being carded like an 18 year old just to get a cheeseburger and lunch that cost you more than a day ticket, lunch for your family of 6 probably could have booked a vacation to Hawaii, but we view it from a skier point of view, why am I here? to tell you a different story, of how the business model works, it works if your a shareholder, but that bubble is about to bust and here is why, as we go skiingwithnofilter
So what do you mean about share holder return?🤷♂️ explain yourself.
Okay, so I have worked for a large corporation, reviewing profit and loss, projections, labor, and all I see, is a company that once followed my company’s footsteps, if you think Vail Resorts has your best experience at heart? no shareholders invest for a return on that investment, and they have and underlying profit margin to meet, thats upto the finance and CEO to meet, and when they don’t, there is hell to pay, trust me, I have been in this hot seat before in the ruthless world of greed and profits, we inflate something like passes up nearly 76% the investments raise, but like a former VP of Finance of my company once told me, you can only be on top Rob, but beware there is only one way down, as he resigned from the corporation, had me thinking there is no way, this model works, we have market share like no other, we are blowing the doors off of everybody, we have monopolized and cornered the market, there is no way down. Foolish me, there was, and in Business School I should have known better then the over projections, but there was a few lines missing from profit and loss that year, yup people’s position, the first line hit is Labor, the easiest to make a return on
So what are you getting at already🤷♂️
Alright shit here we go, so we do a so called ”reorganization” which btw caused my own company I work for to lose market share, 300,000 per month in one department, the you multiply that by 208, that is a huge loss to a company it evened out what they did, they cut training, customer experience, and middle executives and management, there was only one way out, our actions, did not match our promises and words, a horrible Net Promoter Score which Vail won’t even touch, and feedback, nobody listened to the consumer, so where did we cut, thats right, Labor, bye middle management, hello centralized HR, and moving employees and housing then location to location, burning people out, separating families, but yet the company stood by its values streamlining the process, but did it? Now I know from a finance perspective what I need to cut, and the profit it returns for a while, but your on top so there is only one way down, let’s say middle management at Vail made 60,000 a year, put that across 27 resorts in cut positions returns 1, 620,000 dollars back into the company, every penny shaved is a penny earned, that was just a underestimated amount of what they made, probably more, cut HR and your your already over the 3 million dollar mark, is that what Rob Katz is telling you? That he cares? You think he will last a few more years he won’t how will he return what he did this season😳🤷♂️
The Bottom Line
Ahh yea the bottom line, the ”undelying operating profit” man o man could we play with this numbers all day, so on an in depth profit and lost statement, there is always areas to improve, what you have to look at is from the consumer experience, Vail failed in this part, blaming weather, and blaming staffing shortages, yet Loon, Bretton Woods, hell even Black Mountain of NH opened with more terrain, shit even my local mountains opened with more terrain, it’s easy to point the finger, what is not easy is to swallow the pill, they needed a return on investment, as an epic pass holder not by choice, Vail owns 85% of the mountains in PA, then again I had a choice, the experience with close friends was the choice, not the experience the resort offered, my company listened to its consumers and crushed market share, you won’t see that with Vail, it seems everything they touch in the east coast turns to shit, those lift upgrades? do you really think that lift from Mt Snow will help capacity at Jack Frost Mtn Pa, its not really and investment to what they cut, bottom line is Vail has cornered the market for now, how will they fair next season, well I wait as the best is yet to come, like I was told by my VP of my company, he said ”Rob I’m leaving on top, you know why? there is only one way down from here” …… and sure as Fuck hope they scramble, what holds for Vail Resorts next season or the season after, I project it will not not be good, the business model is not sustainable, I have three passes and I will tell you #indypass is the one I will get the most out of, and talk about skier experiences, I’ll leave you with this pic and decide for yourself……
I’m in grey🤣
Skiing With No Filter 