Free Essay

Gold Mountain Ski Resort

In: Business and Management

Submitted By itsuchen
Words 601
Pages 3
GOLD MOUNTAIN SKI RESORT
You work for a venture firm and have been asked to analyze a proposal from a group of investors interested in building a new ski area in Colorado. The demand for skiing is growing and existing resorts have raised prices and reported record profits for the last two seasons.
Gold Mountain’s business strategy is to offer the ultimate ski experience; short lift lines, uncongested ski slopes, and spectacular scenery. With a 2,500 foot vertical drop, 10 trails, and one triple (three person) ski lift, it can provide a very uncongested ski resort. The planned triple-person lift delivers a chair every 20 seconds, 180 chairs per hour (3 chairs per minute, 60 minutes per hour), or 540 skiers per hour (180 chairs per hour, 3 skiers per chair). This puts an average of only 54 skiers per hour on each of the 10 trails. Some trails will be more popular than others, but this average number of skiers per trail per hour is still below the industry average.
The cost to build the ski runs, parking lots, and buildings and to erect the chair lift is $52M. To raise this amount of capital requires an annual financing cost (debt service & dividends) of $8.3M. The annual fixed operating cost (land lease, utilities, labor, taxes, and insurance) of the ski resort is projected to be $4.1M. For each 100 skiers per day, additional employees must be hired to staff the ticket office, ski patrol, parking lots, etc. The daily cost of the additional labor is $200 per 100 skiers per day.
The typical skier makes two ski runs per day (uses the lift twice). Ski resorts operate their lifts 8 hours per day, 120 days per year. Gold Mountain plans to sell one day lift tickets for $60 per skier, no half day or season passes will be offered.
540 skiers per hour, 8 hours per day, 120 days per year, one skier twice
200 per 100 skier per day, 540*8/2/100*200 per day, 120 days per year
Required:
Part A: Write a memo to the venture partner in charge of this account recommending one of three actions: aggressively pursue this investment; gather more information; or reject the project. Justify your recommendation with a concise, well-reasoned, fact based analysis. In addition to the memo, you should attached an easy to understand spreadsheet that shows your full analysis of the numbers. In the spreadsheet, you should design an input area for further “what-if analysis” that allows for changes to be made in the base numbers. This input area should flow to the calculations in your spreadsheet.
Part B: After completing your analysis in Part A, but before you submit the memo to your boss, Gold Mountain informs you that they are considering a change from the triple-person lift to a four-person chair lift. The new chair lift will add an additional $75,000 per year to the annual financing cost, bringing the annual financing cost to $8.375M. This lift will be able to carry 720 skiers per hour, as the triple would only carry 540 per hour. How do these changes alter your conclusion from Part A? Add this new analysis and discussion of the possible change to your memo.
Part C: In addition to the information you have been given, consider alternatives to the existing plan that you might recommend to make the venture more successful. If your ideas increase revenues and/or expenses, be sure to incorporate those estimates into your analysis to show the effect.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Elan Go to Market Strategy

...analysis of the Elan skis: 13 Step 3: BRAND POSITIONING 14 Step 4: OFFERING 14 Step 5: CHANNELS 15 2. BUSINESS IDEAS: 18 2.1 SHORT TERM 18 2.1.1 ˝OLD FOR NEW˝ 18 2.1.2 PROMOTION VIDEOS 18 2.1.3 OUTDOOR EVENTS WITH SPORT CELEBRITIES 19 2.1.4 ELAN COMPETITION DAY 20 2.2 LONG TERM 21 2.2.1 PARTNERSHIPS WITH SKI RESORTS 21 2.2.2 RENTING STORES 22 2.2.3 ELAN SKI SCHOOL / ELAN SKI JUMP SCHOOL / ELAN SKI CROSS SCHOOL 22 2.2.4 COLLABORATION WITH PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN SLOVENIA 23 2.2.5 FUTURE SKIS 23 2.2.6 PARTNERSHIP WITH SKI TRAVEL AGENCIES 23 3. FUTURE TRENDS 25 4. ATTACHEMENT 27 1. Five-steps analysis of Elan Step 1: TARGET MARKETS In 2014, the world ski market was spread around 80 countries, with more than 2 000 ski resorts. It is estimated that the skiers are spread upon Asia and Pacific- with 20% of market share, America with 19%, Western Europe with the third biggest share-27% and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 16%. On the last places are Alps with 18% of total share and other with 1%. Seven countries are ranked on the top of ski market share, which are The United State, France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and Italy. The current ski market is estimated at some 65-70 million skiers around the world. Additionally, around 55 million are primarily downhill skiers and others prefer mostly cross-country skiing. Figure 1: Market share of skiers Figure 1: Market share of skiers Around 3.5 million pairs of skis are sold on an...

Words: 6078 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Elan Go to Market Strategy

...analysis of the Elan skis: 13 Step 3: BRAND POSITIONING 14 Step 4: OFFERING 14 Step 5: CHANNELS 15 2. BUSINESS IDEAS: 18 2.1 SHORT TERM 18 2.1.1 ˝OLD FOR NEW˝ 18 2.1.2 PROMOTION VIDEOS 18 2.1.3 OUTDOOR EVENTS WITH SPORT CELEBRITIES 19 2.1.4 ELAN COMPETITION DAY 20 2.2 LONG TERM 21 2.2.1 PARTNERSHIPS WITH SKI RESORTS 21 2.2.2 RENTING STORES 22 2.2.3 ELAN SKI SCHOOL / ELAN SKI JUMP SCHOOL / ELAN SKI CROSS SCHOOL 22 2.2.4 COLLABORATION WITH PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN SLOVENIA 23 2.2.5 FUTURE SKIS 23 2.2.6 PARTNERSHIP WITH SKI TRAVEL AGENCIES 23 3. FUTURE TRENDS 25 4. ATTACHEMENT 27 1. Five-steps analysis of Elan Step 1: TARGET MARKETS In 2014, the world ski market was spread around 80 countries, with more than 2 000 ski resorts. It is estimated that the skiers are spread upon Asia and Pacific- with 20% of market share, America with 19%, Western Europe with the third biggest share-27% and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 16%. On the last places are Alps with 18% of total share and other with 1%. Seven countries are ranked on the top of ski market share, which are The United State, France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and Italy. The current ski market is estimated at some 65-70 million skiers around the world. Additionally, around 55 million are primarily downhill skiers and others prefer mostly cross-country skiing. Figure 1: Market share of skiers Figure 1: Market share of skiers Around 3.5 million pairs of skis are...

Words: 6099 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Hotel Types Between Resort, Airport Hotel and Horizontal Intergration

...Different accommodation types target different kind of customer. As a Resort, it mostly target luxury leisure travelers as those consumers would be willing to afford more money to enjoy their vacations. Most of the resorts are built far away the downtown, travelers could be escaped from the urban landscape of downtown. Resort are always built near the seaside, rain forest, and even some of the ski resort are built on the snow mountain. Resorts provide couple recreation facilities to the travelers, such as outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, waterfront sport activities, private beach, night clubs, gambling facilities, spa … etc to adapt different types of customer. Some of the resort also provide the conference center or ball room, so that the business customer can also hold a conference meeting at the resort. Since there are sufficient facilities for the travelers, resorts would always do some promotion to target the family to take a vacation over there, or doing some sales promotion to the business customer, to encourage the company to hold the conference over there. An ordinary example in Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Gold Coast Hotel , it sells themselves as a only 5 stars beach resort in Hong Kong, which provides a beautiful beach, conference center and full set of facilities, so that no matter families, couples or business group. They can have their vacation or business conference at their resort. On the other side, the airport hotels are built surrounding the airport...

Words: 468 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Burton Snowboards

... Through the years, he’s played a vital role in transitioning snowboarding from a backyard hobby to a world-class sport. Deemed the ‘Pioneer of Snowboarding’, Jake just sees himself as someone who loves to ride. Just like everybody else who works at Burton, Jake comes to the office, snowboards as much as possible and brings his dog to work if he feels like it. Burton employees play hard and work even harder. Working for Burton is a 24/7 job – you work and live snowboarding everyday, before work, after work, on the weekends and during many late nights at the office. Working long hours during snowboarding season is the norm – but that doesn’t keep Burton employees from riding. All Burton employees receive free season passes to Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont, so there are no excuses not to ride as much as possible. When the snow falls, people head to...

Words: 6182 - Pages: 25

Premium Essay

X Games

...ESPN X Games: Commercialized Extreme Sports for the Masses SMGT 798 Allison Renard A Paper Presented to the faculty of Lasell College in Partial Fulfillment of the requirement of the Degree Master of Science in Management. ABSTRACT For years, extreme sports had little to nothing in common with each other except for high risk, and an appeal to women and men from the ages of 12 to 34. Entertainment Sports Programming Network (ESPN), realizing this age group was a prime viewing audience, brought together several extreme sports and created yet another commercialized sporting spectacle. Since 1995, this television network has produced the Summer X Games. After these summer productions proved to be successful television and live spectator events, ESPN expanded into the winter extreme sports. The Winter X Games have been produced since 1997. This paper, which commences with the rise of extreme sports, is an historical and sociological analysis of the creation and growth of the ESPN X Games. While these commercialized adventure and extreme sporting events have had some obvious growing pains, both the Summer and Winter X Games have grown into events, which annually attract thousands of spectators and viewers while offering fame and a few dollars to their participants. INTRODUCTION One need only take a quick glance at the daily news to discover that society in general is still in a state of constant change (Leonard, 1993). In the United States, this is especially true...

Words: 7500 - Pages: 30

Free Essay

Adsl

...The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad,[clarification needed] is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), after the breakup of the Asian Games Federation.[1] The Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee(IOC) and are described as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.[2][3] In its history, nine nations have hosted the Asian Games. 46 nations have participated in the Games, including Israel, which was excluded from the Games after their last participation in 1974. The last Asian Games was held in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China from 12 November to 27 November 2010. The next Games will be held in Incheon, South Korea. Contents  [hide]  * 1 History * 1.1 Prior formation * 1.2 Formation * 1.3 Crisis, reorganization, expansion * 1.4 Future changes * 2 Participation * 3 Sports * 4 Medal count * 5 Samsung MVP award * 6 List of Asian Games * 7 See also * 8 References * 9 External links | ------------------------------------------------- [edit]History [edit]Prior formation Before the Asian Games were held, there was a gathering known as the Far Eastern Games which was first mooted in 1912 between Empire of Japan, thePhilippine Islands and China. The...

Words: 3545 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Articles

...[pic]Top of Form Aboriginal Australia [pic] Find out how you can connect with the world’s oldest living culture. Discover it the same way Aboriginal Australians have passed it down for at least 50,000 years - through art, dance, myths, music and the land itself. See Aboriginal art and contemporary dance in the cities. Or head to the outback and listen to Dreamtime myths of creation by the campfire. Let Aboriginal Australians help you understand this ancient land and its spirituality and wonder. Six special places you can connect to Aboriginal Australia [pic] Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory Visit Uluru and you’ll see why the rock and surrounding land have such huge spiritual significance for the Anangu Aboriginal people. According to their creation myths, ancestral spirits formed Uluru, which lies in Australia's red centre like an enormous, moody heart. Aboriginal guides will share these ancient tales as you walk around the rock’s base. Just 32 kilometres away is another sacred site - Kata Tjuta. You’ll be awestruck by these steep, rounded, russet domes over 3,500 hectares. [pic] Kimberley, Western Australia Featuring vast horizons and ancient gorges, the Kimberley region is one of the world’s last great wilderness areas. See Wandjina figures painted in caves and the mysterious Gwion Gwion paintings. Ride a camel on Broome’s breathtaking Cable Beach and 4WD the red-dirt road along the Dampier Peninsula. Learn the legend of the orange and black beehive...

Words: 13875 - Pages: 56

Premium Essay

Sunset Grill at Blue

... Background 4 Problem Statement 4 Analysis 5 Operational Models 5 Options, Implications and tradeoffs 5 SWOT ANALYSIS CHART 6 Blueprint for Sunset Grill 7 Recommendations and Conclusions 8 Executive Summary The Sunset Grill-at-Blue, an all-breakfast franchise, located in the Village at Blue Mountain, Ontario is currently operated by Bruce Melhuish. Even though the franchise was named Business of the Year in the counties of Simcoe and Grey, the first year of operation resulted in breaking even. Sunset’s service concept is aimed at providing affordable family meals. The restaurant features an open-concept kitchen, which allows Melhuish to oversee the interaction between staff and customers, and the order process, as in the breakfast business the main goal is to get food out quickly as possible. The purpose of this report is to identify the operational problems of the restaurant and provide recommendations based on an analysis of feasible alternatives. Based on the analysis it was discovered that customer demand had been increasing due to the Village at Blue Mountain ski resort experiencing high occupancy rates during the summer and winter. Because Sunset Grill had not forecasted the high demand of customers during weekends, and thus not adjusted the staff, the ordering process was delayed and created queues of up to 25 minutes. By performing an assessment of the restaurant’s operations, staffing, and facility capacity...

Words: 1819 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Retirement Fund & Property Analysis

...TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction – Part 1 Retirement Analysis – Part 2 Retirement Property Investment Analysis – Part 3 Recommendations - Part 4 Appendix – MLS Brochures Introduction Team B of Investment Asset Managers Inc, has been tasked with a major project of preparing a recommendation of alternative residential retirement properties for a couple. The team intends of offering an option that will fulfill all of the couple’s needs, wants and within their yearly budget. Since the couple wishes to remain anonymous, Team B will work directly with their representative lawyer, Kenneth Strang. The team has determined that the work requested should take approximately 2 weeks and will includes four members at a full time rate of $30 per hour. Total cost for the project will be $9600. Team B’s members include Geoffrey Ramsay, Brett Sheppard, Wayne Johnson, and Michael Smith. Retirement Analysis 403 (b) Retirement payment options: Plan Option One: Investment: $277,770 Joint Lifetime Income With a 20-Year guarantee period (Also Known as Joint and Survivor With 20-Year Period Certain) and 100% continuing benefit to Survivor Monthly Payment for Owner: $1,291 Monthly Payment for Surviving Owner: $1,291 Minimum Payout: $309,840 What it means to you: This annuity provides income to you and another person (e.g., a spouse) for as long as either of you is alive. When one of you passes away, the survivor continues to receive income at 100% of the original amount. If you and...

Words: 3248 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Snowboard History

...Kyle Malone Capstone Essay Comp 2 04/26/11 Snowboarding, A Community Worth Living In It was a friday night just like any other. It was time to gear up and put on my snow clothes. As I put on my snowboarding gear on this day I could have never guessed that this would be the day that I would officially become a part of the snowboarding community. It was a blizzard outside. It hadn’t stopped snowing for twenty hours straight. When I got to Brandywine I met up with my friend Vince. He was new to snowboarding and we were so stoked to get out and ride in three feet of fresh and fluffy white snow. As we rode up the chair lift we just stared in awe because it just looked like a winter wonderland. As we looked off the top of the hill we smiled and laughed and said “lets do it!” We rode for five hours straight in two to three feet of snow. It was like nothing else we had ever ridden. We came down the hill and went up to the bar and got some drinks and a couple of guys came up to us and asked us who we were. We all exchanged names and from that night on we started meeting more and more people and becoming more of a part of what was going on at Boston Mills-Brandywine. We were a part of a community, a community that knows no bounds as to color or age or race. We were all just snowboarders here. The origins of snowboarding go back to 1964. A surf fanatic named Sherman Poppen was wanting to surf the magic landscape of the rockies. As a result he created the first surfboard for the...

Words: 2225 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

...Luana Bulseco Professor Joseph G. Smith MGMT 3100 May 2, 2013 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters: A Good Cup of Java In the beautiful mountains of Vermont, you will find the home of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR). In 1981, Robert Stiller, the company founder, while vacationing at a ski resort in Waitsfield, VT found a cup of coffee so good that he bought the company. At the time, Green Mountain was a small, specialty coffee store, and nobody would have imagined that GMCR would become one of the world's leading specialty coffee makers. Today GMCR is recognized for its award-winning coffees, innovative brewing technology, and socially responsible business practices. Reaching this point, however, was not easy and forced GMCR to master their marketing strategies in order to survive the competition. In a time and age when 'environmentally responsible' has become the latest buzzword in social and environmental responsibility is not a trendy marketing move. It is a key concept that has been part of the company's core commitment and values from the time when it was housed in a tiny storefront cafe. In fact, Green Mountain has been named one of the Top 100 Most Socially Conscious Corporations by Business, Inc. for two years running. The company's production plant has been certified organic since 1997, and they remain committed to offering high quality, completely organically grown coffee as a major part of their offerings. In addition to their commitment to organically...

Words: 1976 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Family Memory

...Kaitlin Bruderer Mrs. Burr English 10/10 8th Family Vacation Family trips to Sun Valley, Idaho are the highlight of my year. This vacation is not planned by our family; it is actually set up for a medical conference my dad and his boss attend, but honestly that is the small of the trip. We go because Sun Valley has amazing ski resorts and my whole family enjoys snowboarding, even my 7 year old brother. All of us learned from my dad. Since we go during the month of February there is always a Super Bowl party . We stay up late and cheer until all of us kids fall asleep and are drug back to our room. We play in the snow, go to fancy places to eat, and best of all we get a whole week to spend together. All too soon our trip ends. Dreading the long treacherous car ride home we look forward to sleeping in our own room in our own soft beds. Within the first few days of being home all of my friends know what goes on while I am on vacation, and usually it is detailed nicely starting off at the beginning. For some reason the car ride up is always long, longer than I ever remember. I listen to my iPod because I don’t like what my dad plays. Heaping piles of glistening snow and some cars pass as we drive, this doesn’t interest me so I sleep. When we get to the hotel my dad has to go get the keys. We do not stay in the main hotel, they also own cabins and that is where we stay. By the time we get to our cabin I cannot wait to get out and stretch. We unload the car and decide who is...

Words: 1940 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Sunglas Campaign in Switzerland

...International Marketing MKT 466- Country Paper Switzerland Including Sunglass Campaign Presented by: Eileen D. Klingsiek Fall Semester 2009/2010 International Marketing MKT466 Country Paper- Switzerland 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Background 2.1 History 2.2 Geography 2.2.1 The three main regions 2.3 Climate 2.4 Demographics 2.5 Religion 2.6 Culture 2.7 Infrastructure and Environment 2.8 Education 2.9 Politics 2.10 Foreign Relations and International Institutions 3.0 Hofstede’s Cultural Model 3.1 Individualism/ Collectivism 3.2 Uncertainty Avoidance 3.3 Power Distance 3.4 Masculinity/ Femininity 4.0 Sunglass Campaign 4.1 4.2 Lifestyle & Leisure 4.3 Climate 4.4 Infrastructure 4.5 Product Price Range 4.6 Product Positioning 4.7 ` Potential Market/ Target Market Media Strategy 5.0 Conclusion 6.0 Personal Reflection 7.0 Work 2|Page International Marketing MKT466 Country Paper- Switzerland Introduction Every Marketing campaign starts with devising the “4 – Ps,” price, product, promotion and distribution. Being successful in business in the international sector understands and adapts to one individual idea: culture. Culture is the most influential uncontrollable environmental force in international marketing (Cateora and Graham, 2007). Due to the fact that the world is ethnically diverse and each ethnicity holds their own traditions, a...

Words: 8132 - Pages: 33

Free Essay

Ramhisjhhsgjhgkajhg, Hskjhdkjhsvkajs,.Gsjhgdjahsgda, Gsjghsgdasjhd, Hsgdlahsdglshd

...March 2013 HIGHLIGHTS There were 6.2 million visitor arrivals for year ending March 2013, an increase of 4.9 per cent relative to the previous year. There were 1.7 million visitor arrivals to Australia during the three months to March 2013, an increase of 5.4 per cent relative to the same period of the previous year. There were 588,500 visitor arrivals during March 2013, an increase of 8.1 per cent relative to the same period of the previous year. Key trends by market are outlined below Download the visitors by market chart[->0]. New Zealand · There were 99,100 visitors from New Zealand during March 2013, bringing the total for the three months to March to 255,000 an increase of 2.9 per cent relative to the same period of the previous year. Europe · There were 71,300 visitors from the United Kingdom during March 2013, bringing the total for the three months to March to 193,300, a decrease of 0.6 per cent relative to the same period previous year. · There were 16,000 visitors from Germany during March 2013, bringing the total for the three months to March to 47,300, an increase of 4.2 per cent relative to the same period previous year. · There were 8,300 visitors from France during March 2013, bringing the total for the three months to March to 27,200 an increase of 5.8 per cent relative to the same period previous year. The Americas · There were 50,000 visitors from the United States of America during March 2013, bringing the total for the three months to...

Words: 4250 - Pages: 17

Free Essay

Docx

...Unit 13- Adventure Tourism Task 1 Introduction Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel with possibly risk, and potentially requiring specialized skills and physical exertion. Adventure tourism involves activities that are physically challenging. Adventure tourism is traveling that consists of having fun traveling to far distant or exotic destination for the purpose of exploration or engaging in a variety of challenging activities. Here are some examples of water-based, land-based and air based adventure tourism activities; bungee jumping, canoeing, caving and horse riding. In the 20th century rise in popularity of rambling, hiking and camping, a much wider cross-section of the public started to experience the great outdoor activities. Cannock Chase Cannock Chase District is located between Stafford and Birmingham and contains the district centres of Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley, It is open all year. Cannock Chase Forest is separated by several roads. There are many activities which we can do in Cannock Chase, first of all the Birches Valley Forest Centre is an excellent starting point for an exhilarating day out on Cannock Chase. Cannock chase has the best bike trails in the Midlands, and the best woodland walks to have an adventurous experience and Go Ape. Visitor Centres in Cannock Chase http://www.visitcannockchase.co.uk/Do.htm Birches Valley Forest Centre Birches Valley Forest Centre is an exciting starting point in Cannock...

Words: 2634 - Pages: 11