After ten years of expansion, Vail Resorts has published a two-year Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan (Plan) to continue its rapid growth and global expansion.
In those ten years, Vail Resorts has expanded from ten owned and operated mountain resorts to 42 resorts across four countries, more than doubling the size of the company’s workforce. During that time, it captured initial acquisition synergies in corporate support functions and technology integrations while investing over $2 billion in guest and employee experience and innovations.
The company reported it now has a “unique opportunity to transform resource efficiency given the scale of its 42 owned and operated mountain resorts, its common enterprise technology ecosystem, and its robust data and analytics capabilities.”
Vail Resorts designed its two-year Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan to improve organizational effectiveness and scale for operating leverage as the company grows. Through scaled operations, global shared services and expanded workforce management, the company expects $100 million in annualized cost efficiencies by the end of its 2026 fiscal year.
“We believe this is a natural progression and next step for our company that builds upon our success and paves the way for the next phase of growth,” said Kirsten Lynch, CEO, Vail Resorts. “Our mission, to create an Experience of a Lifetime for our employees and our guests, galvanizes our company, as does our commitment to reinvesting for growth.”
As part of the Plan, a portion of the company’s cost efficiencies are position eliminations, which it said will impact less than 2 percent of its total workforce, including 14 percent of its corporate workforce and less than 1 percent of its operations workforce. Operations impacts are focused on management structure and back-end support structure, with 0.2 percent impact on frontline roles. Impacted employees will be able to apply for open roles across the company.
“No matter how big or small the impact of position eliminations, we do not take lightly any decision that affects our team members,” Lynch said. “Our team members are the core of our mission to create an Experience of a Lifetime, and we have tremendous gratitude for their passion and commitment to our mission, our mountains, and our guests.”
Vail Resorts two-year Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan includes three pillars:
- Scaled Operations: With 42 owned and operated mountain resorts, plus hospitality operations, as well as retail and rental operations, the company’s operations leaders have developed substantial operating best practices and learnings on how the ski industry solves the same problems differently across the U.S., Canada and Australia. The company reported it now has an opportunity to capture acquisition synergies by leveraging those best practices and introducing new tools to scale how operations are supported across the company, enabling operations to focus on the guest experience and reduce the administrative burden on frontline managers.
- Global Shared Services: As a part of the company’s Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan, it intends to consolidate and outsource its internal business services and call centers into global shared services to support its North American businesses while creating a scalable model that can expand for future global expansion support. In addition to its 37 North American mountain resorts, the company owns and operates three mountain resorts in Australia and, over the past two years, has expanded into Europe with the purchase of Andermatt-Sedrun and Crans-Montana Mountain Resort in Switzerland.
- Expanded Workforce Management: Vail Resorts recently implemented Workforce Management technology across its North American resorts to provide managers with the tools and data insights needed to allocate employee talent based on the guest experience and demand, resulting in more efficient use of hours. The tool also gives frontline employees visibility, access and cross-training for available shifts in-resort and network-wide. Vail Resort’s Resource Efficiency Transformation Plan includes expanding workforce management using best practice models, adding lines of businesses and departments and adding new functionality.
Vail Resorts is a network of global destinations and ski resorts, including Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Park City Mountain, Whistler Blackcomb, Stowe, and 32 additional resorts across North America, Andermatt-Sedrun and Crans-Montana Mountain Resort in Switzerland, and Perisher, Hotham, and Falls Creek in Australia, all available on the company’s Epic Pass.
Image courtesy Vail Resorts
