Retail revenues at Vail Resorts, Inc. rose by $600,000, or 1.2 percent in the second quarter ended Jan. 31 as online sales offset a decline in brick-and-mortar sales – particularly at stores serving the snow-starved Lake Tahoe market area.
Sales at O2GearShop.com, which MTN acquired last summer, generated $5.9 million in retail sales during the quarter, more than offsetting a decline of $5.3 million, or 9.5 percent, at the more than 165 brick-and-mortar stores. That decline was attributed primarily to stores MTN operates near its two Lake Tahoe resorts as well as the Any Mountain stores it operates in the San Francisco Bay area. Sales from all those stores were down a combined $4.0 million due to a decline in skier visitation to the company's Tahoe resorts, which experienced epic snowfalls a year earlier.
One piece of good news in the report was that retail and rental spending per visit increased 9.1 percent at the company’s resorts during the quarter, indicating that the luxury market remains buoyant.
MTN said season-to-date total skier visits to the company's six mountain resorts were off 12.3 percent through Feb. 26, 2012, compared to the year-to-date period a year earlier. That included an 8.8 percent drop in visits to its Colorado resorts during the quarter and a 32.6 percent drop in visitation to its Tahoe resorts. Season-to-date total lift ticket revenue at the company's six mountain resort properties was down 1.5 percent through Feb. 26, compared to the same period a year ago.
“This has been one of the most, if not the most, challenging winters for the U.S. ski industry,” said CEO Rob Katz in discussing the company’s overall results. “We have seen the lowest snowfall levels in over 30 years for our Colorado resorts and weather patterns in Tahoe that have not been seen since the late 1800s.”
The disappointing results prompted MTN to lower its EBITDA guidance for fiscal 2012 to a range of $205-$215 million, down roughly 12 percent from $233-$243 million issued Dec. 7.
