The National Ski & Snowboard Retailers Association reported a dramatic increase in area ski shops gross margins, which led to the most profitable season in years.
At the same time, non-area ski shops are experiencing the opposite declining gross margins and decreased profits.
The NSSRAs bi-annual Cost of Doing Business Study, which is slated to be published shortly, reported that area ski shops had a gross margin of 56.3% in the 2003 season versus 45.7% in the 2001 survey, and a less than one percent increase in total operating expenses, from 42.6% in 2001 to 43.5% in 2003. The result was that net operating profit almost doubled, to 10.1% in 2003 versus 5.7% in 2001.
In 2003, non-area shops had a gross margin on merchandise sales of 39.3% versus 42.3% in the 2001 survey. With a 300 basis point decline in margins and a 250 BPS increase in operating expenses from 32.4% to 34.9%, net operating profit fell sharply in non-area shops, to 3.1% in 2003 versus 10.2% in 2001.
Joy Lutton, the Merchandise Manager at Christy Sports, which runs an extensive resort-based retail business, told SEWs sister publication, The B.O.S.S. Report, that she has seen an increase in soft goods sales this season, which could be boosting area ski-shop margins.
“Im not sure if thats what is driving these statistics,” she said, “but soft goods have been our biggest category so far this season.”
