Vail Resorts, Inc. is restructuring its sales and marketing focus and organization. Due to the growing number of resorts outside of Colorado, including Heavenly Resort, the Grand Teton Lodge Company, seven RockResorts luxury resort hotels, and the location of RockResorts and Vail Resorts Lodging Company corporate offices in Denver, the Company will decentralize most of its sales and marketing functions.
Today, each of the Company's five ski resorts already has in place an existing on-site marketing chief. Similarly, the Grand Teton Lodging Company, Vail Resorts Lodging Company in Denver, and the various resort hotels have also traditionally had sales and marketing executives in charge at each location. With this change from a centralized to a decentralized focus, the decision-making authority of the existing field marketing personnel will be elevated. In addition, a smaller central marketing and sales services group will remain in place to coordinate programs that touch all of the various resorts and hotels.
Martin White, senior vice president of marketing for the Company, participated fully in the decision-making process to decentralize the organization. However, given the much broader scope of his current duties, he and Richard Lesman, vice president of sales and distribution, will vacate their positions with the Company in an amicable parting.
Adam Aron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “After much thoughtful discussion and analysis, we believe that with the depth and strength of our existing resort-based staff, and the growth and diversity of our travel businesses outside of Colorado, it is both most effective and cost-efficient to decentralize the marketing and sales functions within the company. Speed of decision making will inevitably be enhanced in a decentralized structure. Similarly, the complexities of intra-Company communication will be lessened with a decentralized focus. Through more local control, we believe this will allow each of our resorts and reporting segments to more easily focus on those programs which allow them to best and most appropriately market and sell their respective products and services. At the same time, a key core marketing and sales staff will remain in place to continue its cutting edge implementation of marketing and sales programs that cut across and benefit the various resorts and hotels.”
He added, “Although the changing nature of our business, both geographically and across different sectors of travel, has suggested that we move to a decentralized approach, this in no way reflects on the considerable achievements and contributions made to Vail Resorts by Martin White and Richard Lesman. We greatly value their accomplishments and will work fervently to continue and build upon their various initiatives. Vail Resorts has been widely viewed as having a highly professional marketing program, and we have every intention of continuing in that tradition, albeit with a different and more decentralized focus going forward. Indeed, Vail Resorts revenues and business opportunities have increased measurably over the past several years, and our marketing and sales efforts have been an integral part of this progress.”
