In the 1975-76 season, Big Vanilla took in less than $200,000 in revenue, was open for only 65 consecutive days, and had only 15,000 paid admissions. The area’s owners, Okuraya-Davos, filed for bankruptcy. Three years later, under the management and eventual ownership of a former Mt. Snow ski school director, Ron Kutkiewicz, the Big Vanilla, 90 miles north of New York City, is thriving. Last season, on most weekends the 900 pairs of skis in the rental shop were gone by mid-morning. Thanks to a healthy bus tour trade, 40 per cent of which was sold pre-season, the terrible weather in 1978-79 was no deterrent to the 30,000 skiers brought in by tours alone. The tour business accounted for $150,000 of the four-season resort’s $650,000 skiing revenue. The area was open for 110 consecutive days and had 60,000 paid admissions. Its insurance rates have gone down three per cent in the past three years, adding to profits.
Kutkiewicz’s formula when he took over as consultant-manager was to improve the snowmaking facilities, lifts, and trails gradually; to institute a direct sales approach aimed primarily at the tour trade; to put ski pros in key sales positions; and to oversee every aspect of the operation himself. All the concessions — ski shop, rental shop, cafeteria, bar, and restaurant — were eventually taken over by the resort.
“We hired, trained, and developed a competent staff,” says Kutkiewicz, “retaining only two employees from the existing staff. That first year, we ran the ski hill, a 47-room hotel, and the ski school, retaining the existing concessionaires for the time being.
“We designed a marketing effort based on direct sales and the ski show circuit. We designed the personality of our customer — group business — which included ski tours, ski clubs, business groups, social groups, bus tours, but we also contacted travel agents.”
Kutkiewicz developed a block sales method of selling bus tours, offering an extra lift ticket discount to a company who could make a pre-season commitment for a block of 500 tickets.
“We nail them right in the beginning and get that pre-season commitment,” Kutkiewicz says. Presently, he deals regularly with 12 bus companies.
The next target was local trade. Located in the Catskill resort area, Big Vanilla made arrangements with nearby hotels to provide skiing for their guests. They began with two hotels the first season and now have arrangements with eight.
The day-tripper was considered the most difficult skier to reach, but also the most profitable. Last season, day trippers accounted for 30 per cent of the resort’s revenue (with another 30 per cent from bus tours; 20 per cent from local hotel trade; and 20 per cent from season pass holders and Big Vanilla Hotel guests). Next year, Kutkiewicz intends to increase the promotion budget from $79,000 to $100,000 and concentrate more heavily on the metropolitan New York area day crowd.
Kutkiewicz is aiming for 2,500 skier days on weekends and 100,000 skier days per year over the next three years. He’s optimistic that the program of gradual expansion of snowmaking facilities and upgrading of trails, which has been so successful thus far, will make this prediction a reality.
When he came to the resort as manager the first year, Kutkiewicz was employed by Citibank, which had taken over the lease from the bankrupt owners. Citibank was anxious to see Big Vanilla operate well because they hold the mortgage on Davos In The Woods, a winter vacation community on 1,000 acres adjacent to the ski resort. There are presently 100 homes in the development.
“The lifts were outdated,” recalls Kutkiewicz. “No one had to tell me that the place was more or less uninsurable and did not meet state or federal regulations, so I picked three out of nine lifts to get into decent shape the first year.”
By giving Barringer and Williams an engineering proposal and renovation schedule for repair of the lifts, he was able to get a guarantee of insurance coverage by Christmas day of the ’75-76 season. The resort then bought a Hedco snowmaker for $30,000 and a Tucker SnoCat for $26,000, and opened on 50 per cent of the available terrain, which included 10 trails Kutkiewicz earmarked as the bread and butter area.
“I hired a new outside maintenance manager with six years experience in lift maintenance and mechanics, and established the position of snowmaking and snow grooming manager for an employee who had been here since 1959,” says Kutkiewicz.
In the second season of operation, Kutkiewicz took over Citibank’s lease and set up his own corporation, Ronko Sports. By the third season, he was able to acquire the ski area outright. The second year, three more lifts were working, and five more trails became accessible. Ronko Sports took over all the concessions, expanding the rental shop from 400 to 900 units. Direct sales were also increased, with Ron and a year-round sales staff of three attending 15 ski shows in the Northeast. A Dude Ranch operation was set in motion for the summers, and brought in $300,000 in revenue in 1978. The year-round operation also enabled Kutkiewicz to hold onto key employees. Still, there’s a big turnover in winter employees. To assure a qualified staff, Kutkiewicz holds an intensive seminar for potential lift operators every fall, four hours a night for four nights. Those attending are taught evacuation procedures, operation of the lifts, and mechanics of how the lifts work. After a written test, 40 to 50 per cent of the people participating in the course are hired.
Kutkiewicz also holds a school for bus tour instructors, who are taught the same teaching methodology as Big Vanilla’s ski school instructors.
In the 1978-79 season, night skiing was instituted and two more lifts were added, opening all 21 trails and slopes. An additional snow grooming machine was purchased and snow making was expanded. For the future, Ron intends to add additional trails, widen those that already exist, and continue to expand the snowmaking system. More night lighting is also on the agenda.
He feels it’s important to maintain consistent service throughout the area, which is why Big Vanilla operates its own concessions. All new equipment was ordered for the rental shop, for instance, when Ronko took over. And the retail shop was expanded from an accessory shop to a full-line ski shop.
Big Vanilla was first established in 1959, and was one of the Best-equipped ski areas in existence then. By thinking big — but making improvements step-by-step — Kutkiewicz has again made it a safe, well-run, totally pleasurable place to ski.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Vertical Rise | 500’ |
| Top Elevation | 1,900’ |
| Number of lifts of each type — Tram (Capacity) | |
| Gondola (Capacity) | |
| T-Bar | 4 |
| Poma | |
| J-Bar | |
| Single Chair | |
| Double Chair | 3 |
| Triple Chair | |
| Quadruple Chair | |
| Rope | 2 |
| Other | |
| Lift Ticket Prices | Weekend Adult $10.50, Junior $7.50, Student $9.50; Weekday Adult $8.00, Junior $6.00, Student $7.00; Night Skiing $5.00 |
| Area Capacity (vertical transport feet per hour) | |
| Snow Making Capacity (no. cubic feet of air or no. guns and feet of air) | 4 Hedco Airless, 2 smi airless, 3,000 cu feet |
| Grooming Fleet | 2 Thiokols 2100 series with larchmonts, blades and compactor bar, powdermakers, ice crushers, packers. |
| Amount of Terrain (acres or miles of trails) | 21 trails & slopes, 100 plus acres |
| Season Pass Price (standard individual) | Ranges from pre-season price of $135 to in-season price of $185 includes day and night |
| Number Full Time Employees | 40 |
| Number Seasonal Employees (not including ski school) | 60 + |
| Number Full Time Instructors | 16 |
| Part Time | 30 |
| Miles of Track-Set Cross Country Trails | 5 miles groomed, unlimited ungroomed |
| Facility | Area Owned | Concession |
|---|---|---|
| Ski School | X | |
| Ski Shop | X | |
| Rental Shop | X | |
| Restaurant | X | |
| Bar | X | |
| Nursery | X | |
| Games | ||
| Hotel |
