Vail trims losses during slow season, misses Wall Street mark on sales

BROOMFIELD — Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) lost $139.3 million during the first quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, but that’s an improvement over last year’s results during the company’s slow season prior to the opening of North American ski resorts.

The company lost $153.8 million during the same period last year, which ended Oct. 31.

Revenues for the most recent quarter were $175.6 million, up from $131.8 in the first quarter of 2021.

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Vail missed Zachs Consensus Estimate for sales by about $20 million.

“Our first fiscal quarter historically operates at a loss, given that our North American mountain resorts are generally not open for ski season operations during the period. The quarter’s results are primarily driven by winter operating results from our Australian resorts and our North American resorts’ summer activities, dining, retail/rental and lodging operations, and administrative expenses,” Vail CEO Kirsten Lynch said in a statement accompanying it’s earnings report. “We are pleased with our results for the quarter, which exceeded our expectations. Performance at our Australian resorts during the first quarter was negatively impacted by COVID-19-related limitations and restrictions including stay-at-home orders and periodic resort closures throughout the quarter. We were able to reopen our Australian resorts for the last few weeks of the ski season, resulting in favorability relative to our expectations.”

She continued: “Our Tahoe resorts were negatively impacted by the Caldor fire, which resulted in the early closure of our summer operations in the region. Aside from these unique challenges, we continued to see strong demand throughout the quarter, which we believe highlights our guests’ continued desire for outdoor experiences.”

Vail increased sales of its Epic Passes by approximately 47% in units and about 21% in sales dollars year-over-year.

“We are very pleased with the results of our season pass sales, which continue to demonstrate the strength of our data analytics capabilities and the compelling value proposition of our pass products, driven in part by the 20% reduction in pass prices for the 2021/2022 season,” Lynch said in a statement. “We expect that the total number of guests on all advance commitment products this year will exceed 2.1 million including all pass products for our North American and Australian resorts, an increase of approximately 0.7 million from last year and an increase of approximately 0.9 million from two years ago.

Vail reaffirmed its EBITDA  guidance for the full fiscal year 2022 of $785 million to $835 million.

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