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Turning Midwest Molehills into Profit Mountains
By
March 06, 2006
Feisty. Innovative. Profitable.
Not words you might ordinarily associate with the Midwest, but talk with Tim Boyd for a while and you might change your mind.
Boyd is president of Peak Resorts, a privately held company based in Missouri that operates nine areas, all but two of them in the Midwest. Most recently, Peak agreed in December to operate Big Boulder and Jack Frost in the Pennsylvania Poconos. Peak's other properties are Hidden Valley and Snow Creek in Missouri; Mad River Mountain, Boston Mills and Brandywine in Ohio; Paoli Peaks in Indiana; and Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire.
A 53-year-old non-skier who played golf for his college team while getting a business degree at the University of Missouri, Boyd is considered a savvy player who has found the keys to making thriving resorts out of "mountains" with a 300-foot vertical drop and unreliable snowfall.
Those keys are simple. "We're big believers in metropolitan day ski area concepts" and "heavy duty snowmaking to level the playing field," Boyd told Industry Report. "We like to go to markets where we're the only one." Although the company does own some land, he emphasizes: "We're not in real estate."
Once Peak Resorts takes over a hill Boyd adds to the mix a beginner-oriented ski school, innovative pricing and hours, a lot of night skiing - including some "midnight madness" weekends and affordable season passes.
The formula has proven so successful that the nine resorts will register a total of about one-million skier visits this season, according to Boyd, who has "maybe 10 or 12 partners." He said the company is profitable, and management is a family affair. His wife Missi, works with him. Son Jesse and daughter in law Jessica are managing Big Boulder and will move to Pennsylvania soon.
Indeed, the Peaks formula is one embraced by numerous busy little mountains throughout the Midwest. "Location, location, location," chants a spokesman for the Midwest Ski Areas Association. "We create skiers and snowboarders here."
Nor does Peak have all metro regions to themselves. Indiana's Perfect North, a half-hour from Cincinnati, competes with several Peak areas. In Mansfield, Ohio, Snow Trails, about an hour from Columbus and in operation for 45 years, is still run by the founder, Dave Carto.
Said Snow Trails business manager Scott Crislip: "I guess you might say Peak resorts is more a corporate type. We think we have a little bit more of the personal touch and provide more of a friendlier atmosphere."
The Midwest mantra is "friends, family, church and school," according to the MSAA spokesman. Because Mother Nature is fickle, "machine-made snow is how we open our businesses and how we survive. We do great business that way. We don't have the big mountains. But they're fun to learn on and to come back to."
Peaks started its ascent when Boyd, fresh out of college, bought Hidden Valley, a golf resort 25 minutes from downtown St. Louis, in 1975. Eventually, he cut ski slopes on a nearby hill. He welcomed winter in 1982, but after three dicey years without enough natural snow, he learned his lesson: "you need overwhelming firepower" for man-made flakes.
A believer in capital-intensive but energy-conserving fan technology rather than older snowmaking systems, Boyd says he poured $2.5 to $3-million into snowmaking facilities in 2001 at Mad River, which serves Columbus, Ohio. It went from 75,000 skier days annually at the time Peaks took it over to 175,000 today.
The aim at each Peaks resort is more than just opening early in a season. "We know about freeze-and-thaw, and our goal is to bring our systems back overnight...All it takes is one cold night," Boyd says. With fan technology, Peaks can lay a carpet of up to five inches on a resort during a single night.
His competitors have rushed to catch up with his Midwest snow machines. We're buying probably the same equipment," said Crislip of Snow Trails. Having put $500,500 into snowmaking in recent years, Snow Trails is "equal to or better" than Mad River in that department, he contends.
Boyd's motto remains: "the best snowmakers usually win." It is a core belief he has implemented at Crotched, now in its second season under the Peaks banner, to get a ski leg up on other feeder resorts north of Boston.
Cleveland, served by Boston Mills and Brandywine, may be the biggest of Boyd's markets. Those areas sell 5,000 season passes for as little as $295 for adults ($495 with season-long ski or snowboard rental), $245 for youngsters 5-12 ($445 with rentals.) "We've been able to sell a lot because we convince them they'll get enough days to get their money's worth," he said.
At Snow Creek, which serves Kansas City, promotions include Saturday night skiing until 3 a.m., and Sunday evening beginner specials (lifts, lessons, equipment) at $18 for kids 7 to 12, $30 for adults.
"The biggest part of our market is the beginners. If you want to call us the minor league, it's OK. We're not proud; we're in the business of making money," said Boyd.
Snowboarding is serious fun at almost all Midwest areas. Snow Trails, for instance, has two terrain parks within its 50 acres. At Peak Resorts 40 percent of its ticket buyers are riders. Terrain parks need a lot of snow but not a lot of vertical, Boyd noted, "so it fits our m.o."
Does Boyd's achievement so far mean he will soon eye bigger mountains or start moving into destination-skier markets such as the Rockies? Not likely.
"I think we've operated under the radar. Nobody has tried to do what we've been doing. American Skiing, Intrawest - they try to consolidate the big ones. We tried to find our own niche. We've found it and are doing well by it," he said.
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Comments
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2/17/07
Just heard the news that Mt. Snow was sold and read up on Tim Boyd and Peak Resorts. I am a condo owner at Deer Creek, Mt Snow, and am looking forward to the new ownership. Good Luck and make lots & lots of snow
Bob Morgenstern |
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Posted by: robert morgenstern | February 17, 2007 02:25 PM
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we are thrillled of years of being abused financially that there is new blood interested in improveing this great place. |
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Posted by: jane friedman | February 21, 2007 11:02 AM
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Thank God some one with the right dream has bought our mountain. I am sure the founders would be thrilled to see this mountain revert to it form glamour. |
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Posted by: Buddy Morgan | February 21, 2007 05:26 PM
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