Attendees: Will Kriewald, Leigh Michl, Andrew Snow, Brian Williams (scribe), Bryan Hall, Richard Gervase
Absent: Jeff Wittingham, Meg Schultz, Matt Lillard, Brad Noble, Geordie Hall, Andrew Carey
Agenda
1:00 pm – Call to order – Will Kriewald
1:01 pm – Review February minutes – Will Kriewald/Brian Williams
1:05 pm – Review February and FYTD Financials – Andrew Snow
1:30 pm – Review cash flow forecast – Andrew Snow
1:40 pm – Discussion on Season Pass Pricing
1:50 pm – Discussion on Cash Flow Analysis
2:00 pm – Adjournment
Approval of Minutes from Prior meeting
5 members available. Will noted that committee now at 9 members so Quorum is available. Motion to approve Will, Leigh second. Approved.
February
Revenue
Best month ever for the Co-op! Month rating was 3.2.
Richard – number of skier visits is Jan? Andrew – will look later as it is in last month’s files.
Huge increase in day tickets. 67% above budget!
Bryan – How much in advance are day tickets purchased? Expected more pricing power(yield). Andrew – We have good data on when people are buying. President’s week is the earliest, historically. Closer to $105 – $110 online if purchased less than a week in advance. President’s week was close to the window rate as these are popular. The Co-op has a ceiling on online pricing rather than turning the site into an “auction” on powder days. Prices will not go above the window rate. Andrew noted a story of another ski area without a ceiling in their on-line ticket sales that generated the highest day ticket price in North America this year for a powder day (>$300).
Will – what else is driving the ticket yield down? Andrew – other ticket products cheaper (1/2 day, junior, etc.). We can look through the yield more in-depth if desired in the future.
Brian – Let’s get to the factors that determine the overall yield as part of that future discussion.
This is the first time the Co-op has had over $1M in revenue during an operating month!!! This only happens in October with recognition of full season pass sales. Next biggest revenue month during ski season was Feb 2020 at $900K (just before the start of the pandemic).
Expense
Credit card rates jumped above 4%. Higher costs were expected with the higher traffic but the rates were also higher than expected. Andrew is in contact with the credit card provider to better understand what caused the higher rates and how we might be able to mitigate going forward, especially with pre-season pass sales next month.
Sara adding in breaks for lift operators for lunch/skiing. Very well received.
Richard – Sara has lift ops and grooming? Andrew – just lift ops which includes lift ticket scanning and parking lot attendants.
Additional expense for special employee party after the big holiday weekend. Very well received.
Rental shop on target for both revenue and expense. Easy budget prep for next year.
The overall cost increase, with increased traffic, was less than expected and drove the NOI even higher. Economies of scale with the consistently high number of visitors.
A cyber attack on the ATM at end of Presidents week was noted as a special line item. The remote monitoring system of the ATM owner was compromised. The cyberattack disabled the sending of the withdrawal information from the ATM to user’s banks. There was $1200 in legitimate withdrawals. A further $6280 was withdrawn on-site by folks connected with the cybercriminals (in 10 minutes). Insurance should pay the $6280 amount. The ATM will be out of commission for the rest of the season. Management will discuss whether we want to have this going forward.
Net Ordinary Income
$287K! 260K$ above budget. The consistency of this season has driven the great revenue numbers. Hit $4M revenue by President’s week (have hit this mark just at end of each of the last two seasons). Revenue was $570K above budget! May see some erosion in March/April versus budget based upon the weather forecast moving forward.
Cash Flow Feb
Cash is in very healthy shape. $2.28M at end of month. Same amount as this month last year. This is phenomenal given the additional capital expenditures this season covered by the Co-op.
$57K in share sales in February. $50K of this were new purchases. The additional $7K are on-going payoff of obligations for existing shareholders.
Total Cash Review
Final bill has been paid for the mid-station project. Expect some back from SMF in the future but not confirmed at this time.
Cash Flow 2024-25 Projection
The Co-op did not have to move anything from brokerage accounts due to the great performance in Feb! A 100K$ contribution from SMF is penciled in for March. We do not know yet whether they will be able to meet that.
Andrew will move more cash into the brokerage account from available cash before the pre-season sales. Pre-season sales will also be moved into the brokerage account to maximize interest once the sale is complete.
Brian: What is the ballpark number for the bonuses that will be given the great season as these are not in the budget? Andrew: about 100K$. This will impact on what we put into brokerage accounts once the final amounts are determined.
Andrew noted some capital needs – nearing $100K – over the summer for new grips for the practice slope chair, power outage mitigation and a few other items.
Discussion
Season Pass Pricing
Launching April 1 for a two-week sale. Restart sales in September after Labor Day. Overall, there was a 5-10% increase in spring pass sale prices. Taking advantage of the great season but with a look to expected significant increases in health insurance and electricity for the next season.
Leigh questioned the significant increase in senior passes (Brian also chimed in with support for Leigh). Andrew noted that senior passholders (65-69) are skiing more than previously thought based upon RFID scanning. This is the basis for increasing these 65-69 pass products. Other senior pass increases are more in line with other pass product increases. Andrew also noted that many other ski areas do not offer these senior discounts until age 70 so these are considered a very good deal in the industry.
Will – Any change to number of passes to be sold? Andrew – no, not now. There will be a future conversation as we see more movement from non-Shareholder passes to Shareholder passes as more people have become shareholders. May need a reduction in some non-SH passes at some point in the future. Andrew also noted that more shareholders means more passholders are getting a 15% SH discount than past years.
Bryan – Could we black out the value pass on MLK, President’s week? Andrew – We made the change post-pandemic to eliminate the blackout. We have not talked about bringing it back. The pass was made more expensive, but we gave back the blackout dates for that increase.
Will – I did not realize we sold Stark Mountain cards in the spring. Andrew – yes, the first year we did not. We have sold in the spring for the last two years. We sell-out some time in Sept. We are still seeing significant breakage. This year is currently at 95K$ left to be spent by card holders.
Day ticket window price increases to $115 – $125 for non-SH. $98 to $105 for SH. Some feedback on how expensive the window day ticket price is but still a bargain relative to what other areas are offering. Mid-week prices, through the capacity model, are much lower than the ticket window price. Do not expect resistance.
Leigh made a motion to recommend the proposed Spring 2025 ticket prices as suggested. Brian seconded. Unfortunately, we were short of quorum as Richard left the meeting just before the motion.
Capital Cash Flow Analysis – moved to a future meeting.
Meeting closed without motion as we remained short of a quorum.
