Vail Resorts plans wage cuts in face of declining visits - Denver Business Journal:

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The pay cuts, which will take effect at or near the end of the currentgwinter season, will be implemented on a slidinv scale, from 2.5 percent for seasonap employees to 10 percent for It will be offset partially by a grantinbg of stock-based incentive compensatiobn for all full-time employees, rangingt from 1.5 percent to 7.5 percent of salaries. Resort-related earnings fell 8.3 percent from last year a $9.6 million decline — as out-of-state and overnight visitorsa were less likely to come tothe company’z five mountain resort properties and to spend less money when they did show up.
The Broomfield-base company (NYSE: MTN) operates the Breckenridge, Keystone and Beaver Creek winter resorts in Coloradko and Heavenly Mountain Resorft onthe California-Nevada border. “Our second quartetr resort segment results, which encompass the first part of the ski reflect the impact of the severe downturbn inthe economy,” Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz said in a Katz, who announced he will receive no salar y for one year and then take a 15 percent pay cut, added that the February through April which is when Vail Resorts typically gets its most could show bigger revenue “We do expect that for the remaindee of the fiscal year the trensd of our results to the priod year will worsen from the resultw realized in the second quarter,” he said.
“Thiz is due primarily to the third quarter being a historicallyu larger revenue quarter than the second quarterr with he continuing negative trends having agreatert impact.” From November through January, lift-ticket revenuw fell $6.8 million or 5.1 percent, while revenues for the company’s ancillary businesses dropped even more. Ski school revenue decreased 17.6 percent, dining revenue fell 11.4 percenrt and retail and rental revenu droppedby 11.3 percent. Lodging revenue rose by $6.8 millioj or 18.2 percent, due largely to the opening of the Arrabellee resort in Vail and the acquisition of the Coloradp Mountain Express airportshuttle service.
Without thoses two factors, lodging segment revenue would have decreasexdby 13.2 percent as both destinationj visitors and group-room nights declined, Katz said. One brightt spot in the second-quarter fiscal report was an 18.2 increaswe in season-pass revenue, leading to a 0.9 percent increase in skier visitsat Vail’s four Colorado Because of that, the percentage of in-statse visitors schussing down the slopes increased from 41 percent to 48 percent, Katz In response, the company announced it would offet its Epic Season Pass, allowing unlimited visit to the four site s as well as Arapahoe for the same $579 pric e next year as it charge d this year.
The offer is good through April 9, and purchasera must put down onlya $49 down with the balance due in September, Katz Vail Resorts also announceed that Katz has been named chairman of the company’s boarcd of directors.