Vail Resorts to lay off corporate employees as losses mount

BROOMFIELD — Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) plans to lay off 14% of its corporate workforce and about 1% of its operations staff as part of a two-year “transformation plan” aimed at reversing downward revenue and earnings trends. 

Worldwide, Vail employs roughly 7,600 year-round employees and about 44,900 seasonal employees. 

Given that Vail’s headquarters is in Broomfield, it is reasonable to anticipate that there will be a significant number of local workers laid off as part of the 14% reduction in corporate headcount. Vail, representatives of which did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday, has not filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, which is required if layoffs meet certain thresholds. 

“No matter how big or small the impact of position eliminations, we do not take lightly any decision that affects our team members,” Vail CEO Kirsten Lynch said in a prepared statement.

In addition to layoffs, Vail, which has grown from 10 resorts to 42 and doubled its workforce over the last decade, said its transformation plan includes “leveraging … best practices and introducing new tools to scale the way operations are supported across the company,” consolidating and outsourcing internal business services and call centers, and using technology to improve workforce efficiency.

Vail hopes to achieve $100 million in annualized savings by the end of fiscal 2026.

Sales fell from $269.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023 to $265.4 million in the most-recent quarter. Over that period, the net loss attributable to Vail rose from $128.6 million to $175.4 million.

For the full 2024 fiscal year, Vail’s net revenue fell $4.2 million year over to nearly $2.9 billion. Net income attributable to Vail Resorts was $230.4 million in the most recent fiscal year, down from $268.1 million in fiscal 2023.

“Skier visitation declined 9.5% compared to the prior year, driven by unfavorable conditions across our resorts in North America and Australia, combined with the impact of broader industry normalization post-COVID following record visitation in North America during the 2022/2023 ski season,” Lynch said in a statement. “In North America, snowfall across our western resorts was down 28% from the prior year and our eastern U.S. resorts experienced limited natural snow and variable temperatures.” 

Pass sales for the upcoming ski season were down 3% year over year as of Sept. 20.

Looking ahead to fiscal year 2025, Vail estimates that net income attributable to the company will be between $224 million and $300 million.