Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz takes questions from investors for first time since returning
Net income on the quarter was $392.8 million, up nearly 8% compared to the same period last year
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Vail Resorts detailed its earnings results for the company’s fiscal 2025 third quarter on Thursday as CEO Rob Katz took questions from analysts for the first time since the company’s board of directors appointed him to the top executive position in May.
Katz started the conversation by acknowledging that there will likely be questions for which he does not yet have the answers.
“Given how much time I’ve spent around this company, it is natural to assume that I arrived here with a fully thought out detailed action plan, but that is not the case,” Katz said. “There is a big difference between serving on the board and being the executive, here every day with our teams driving change. And that is how real change happens — on the ground. That was true in 2006 when I first took over as CEO and that is still true today.”
Katz and CFO Angela Korch had some good news to share, as net income on the quarter was $392.8 million, up nearly 8% compared to the same period last year. Total lift revenue increased by $24.6 million, or 3.3%, compared to the same period in the prior year.
The one negative area for lift ticket revenue was non-pass product lift revenue, or walk-up revenue from guests buying same-day ski passes from the lift ticket window. Those numbers were flat compared to the prior year.
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Analysts took notice, asking Katz if the company has been a victim of its success in that metric, pushing walk-up guests away and into the company’s much more affordable pre-purchased passes.
But Katz used the opportunity to reinforce one area he will be resolute in his convictions moving forward — the importance of pre-purchased passes to the business model of Vail Resorts and the ski industry at large.
“Obviously, we want people to be on the mountain and we want people to visit our resorts, and of course, what we prefer is that people buy in advance and come to the resort on a pass product of some sort,” Katz said. “To the extent that people are not doing that, we still are hoping to convert those lift ticket buyers or people who may not be buying a pass into a pass product.”
Katz said those who don’t purchase ahead of time represent an opportunity for the company. For those guests, “it is our job to provide avenues or passes for them to come to our resort, try them out and ultimately get them into our primary loyalty product,” Katz said. “I think that that does require looking at new approaches to our pass product and pacing strategy, but I don’t think that it actually goes to the core thesis that we would prefer to have people in advance commitment products, and we are not going to do anything to call into question the value proposition that we are offering to our passholders.”
Part of that strategy could involve new approaches to marketing, Katz said.
“I think on the marketing side, we have incredible fundamentals and foundations in that group, and terrific talent, but I think there’s an opportunity for us to take what we are doing in marketing and bring it to be a little more current,” Katz said. “We have had a number of things that have been so successful for us, when we look back over last decade, but obviously some new tools and approaches for us to make sure we’re really connecting with guests in the way that’s most impactful given the changing environment that is out there, and I think that is, for us, critical of returning to revenue growth.”
Regarding revenues moving forward, the company did continue its negative trend of having to make downward revisions to its projected earnings, with Katz and Korch saying Vail Resorts now expects to earn a maximum of $298 million in net income in fiscal 2025. That’s down from the estimated top end of $309 million issued during the company’s second-quarter earnings report in March, which was down from $316 million following the first-quarter earnings report in December.
“It will be important for me to still continue to listen and learn from everyone here, and for all of you to give me the space to do that, as well,” Katz said. “That said, of course, I am not starting at ground zero and will have much more to share on our future plans during upcoming earnings calls and at our investor conference next spring.”
