Browse Our Archives

March 2014

Industry Reports :: March 2014

INTRAWEST HOLDS IPO... WOLF MOUNTAIN SOLD... SIA RETAIL NUMBERS SHOW HOLIDAY STRENGTH... OBITUARY... PEOPLE... SUPPLIER NEWS... CORRECTIONS

Written by Staff | 0 comment

INTRAWEST HOLDS IPO
Intrawest Resorts Holdings, Inc., which counts Winter Park, Stratton, Steamboat, Mont Tremblant, Blue Mountain and Snowshoe among its holdings, raised almost $188 million from an initial public offering of approximately 15.6 million shares of its common stock. The selling stockholder granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,343,750 shares of common stock. The offering closed in early February. Shares were priced at $12, which was below the $15 to $17 per share they had hoped for.


Intrawest anticipated that it would receive $35.1 million in net proceeds, which it earmarked for working capital and other general corporate purposes, such as possible investments in, and acquisitions of, ski and adventure travel businesses and assets.

WOLF MOUNTAIN SOLD
Another local’s area is getting a new lease on life: Skyline Mountain Base, an investment group comprised of local and European investors, has acquired Wolf Mountain Ski Resort, Utah, from America First Credit Union. No terms of the deal were disclosed.


Wolf Mountain fell into bankruptcy in 2010, and parts of the property were sold at auction. The resort itself did not sell, but eventually emerged from bankruptcy thanks to America First.


Skyline plans no immediate changes to the resort, other than expanding the operating hours, and opening on Sundays. By next season, new management will be in place, and the name of the resort will be Skyline Mountain Base.

SIA RETAIL NUMBERS SHOW HOLIDAY STRENGTH
SnowSports Industries America (SIA) and Leisure Trends’ SIA RetailTRAK numbers were strong from August through December 2013, based on data collected from more than 1,200 retailers.


The snow sports retail market had a record holiday selling season, but severe drought in the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges tempered the celebration. Sales reached a new record of $2.2 billion for the period, $193 million more than was spent at retail through December last season and $26.5 million more than the previous record set in 2010-11.

OBITUARY
Josef Wiegand, founder of Wiegand GmbH & Co KG, died unexpectedly after a short illness. He was 79 at the time of his death.

PEOPLE
At the National Ski Patrol, John McMahon was appointed executive director.


Elizabeth Howe was named senior director, Vail Mountain operations, Colo.


At Northstar California, Rachael Woods was named senior manager of communications.

SUPPLIER NEWS
Woodward, a division of Powdr, and Kässbohrer announced a long-term partnership. As part of the deal, PistenBully’s 400 Pro Series will be the official machine of Woodward’s mountain centers located at Boreal Mountain, Calif., and Copper Mountain, Colo., to build terrain parks and pipes. The partnership will also extend to select Powdr Resorts including Park City Mountain Resort, Utah, Killington, Vt., and Mt. Bachelor, Ore.


Prinoth was the official partner of Rosa Khutor, the ski area that hosted the downhill, super combined, giant slalom, slalom and freestyle and snowboard races for the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. Prinoth supplied 62 groomers.


Powder Magazine welcomed Julie Brown and Rupert Walker to the editorial staff as on-line editor and video editor respectively.


At Snowboard Magazine, Kyle Kennedy was appointed publisher.


Rory Strunk is the new president of Warren Miller Entertainment and the AIM Studios.


GrindMedia announced that Adam Cozens was promoted to senior director of sales, action sports. At Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboarder, Jeff Baker was promoted to dual publisher. Ryan Field was promoted to dual associate publisher of the two titles. Kayse Gundram was promoted to senior account executive of the two magazines, Bryan Ellis is now senior account executive, and Alyssa Falso was promoted to sales and marketing coordinator.

CORRECTIONS
In the January Index of Advertisers in SAM, we incorrectly listed MND America’s websites. The correct websites should be www.mnd-group.com and www.arecousa.com.


In the January “Construction Site” the manufacturer of the new Stag’s Leap fixed-grip quad at the Heritage Club, Vt. (formerly Haystack) was misidentified. The supplier is Skytrac.