Compagnie des Alpes reports good results for winter 2008/09

Despite the difficult economic climate, it seems the excellent snowfalls this winter has helped maintain turnover for Compagnie des Alpes.

Compagnie des Alpes runs 17 ski resorts in France alone and is also a partner in Verbier amongst others. Consolidated sales for the first quarter of 2009 came in at a not too shabby 324.9 million euros. Like for like with last year, this actually represented a drop of 1.6%, but that can be explained by the fact the Easter holidays fell outside of the first quarter this year.

Looking at figures until the end of April (and therefore including the Easter weekend), Compagnie des Alpes posts a 2% rise in sales compared with like for like in 2008. CEO Dominique Marcel spoke of "the resilience of ski resorts in a difficult economic climate".

It seems the World Ski Championships in Val d'Isere held during the February holidays actually had an adverse affect on sales, but the continued rise (up 4% on last year) in revenues per skier can be partly explained by the re-opening of Paradiski with the Vanoise Express back running this season.

Up to 20% of all Compagnie des Alpes guests are British and the resorts the company runs includes Tignes, Val d'Isere, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Les Menuires, Meribel and Chamonix.

Given that the coffers are all good and 77% of the CDA shareholders have opted to receive shares as dividends for the 2007/08 season, meaning CDA has increased equity capital by around 13 million euros with that move alone, maybe we can look forward to ski pass prices falling next winter? We don't think we can hear the sound of hell freezing over yet, so we'd better get saving for next year's annual pass!