Well at least you didn’t get currawong to pop in and say "Well at Falls Creek…….."
Hotham/Falls lift staff sent home...will they reopen?
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I don’t think the existing pods have been used for years, in fact I don’t recall seeing any of them recently even in storage at HH load, maybe I’m blind.
I know some of them got sent to NZ on a rental agreement a few years back, unsure if they came back.
That isn't great is it, I don't like hearing things like that, what a shame.
The word I hear from Falls and Gotham is how Vail in Aus is basically Perisher.
Well no surprises there.
Peter Brulisauer- formerly COO Perisher, now COO Vail Australia, Richard Phillips - formerly Sales and Marketing Manager, Perisher, now VP and General Manager Falls Creek, Gavin Girling - formerly HR Manager Perisher, now HR Manager Australia. Need I go on?
I remember Falls people complaining after the merger in the mid/late 90s that everything was too Hotham-centric and a lot of infrastructure got moved across etc so if that sentiment has shifted to a Perisher dominated situation they probably feel even more disenfranchised.
That's more a timeline thing with Perisher joining the fold prior to Hotham and Falls. The Vail operating systems had been / were being implemented at Perisher, so it made sense. Plus roles had changed very recently at both Falls and Hotham prior to the Vail move, so there was more stability at Perisher and longer tenure. Honestly, don't think there was any us and them or NSW / Vic prejudice, it was probably more circumstance than anything.
Vail management probably looks to leveraging off the Perisher model to manage the VIC resorts.
That would have been in the acquisition slide pack by the strategy team to motivate the purchase, along with the financials on the increased travel to US Vail resorts by Aussies…..
From our point of view we’re so aware of the differences between the Oz resorts - including an awareness of their key differences in terms of operating model, demographics, core market, strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings.
From Vail’s corporate strategy perspective the Aussie commonalities outweigh the differences, and the simplification of overseas complexity (AKA ‘realising synergies’) is probably the dominant management paradigm.
In retrospect Merlin sold at a good price at the right time.
Do the Atlassian blokes snowboard?
so you don't think there are ever interesting parallels or contrasts?
Yes. However the acquisition was more opportune than the culmination of a grander plan. Vail were happy with their Perisher acquisition, very happy indeed. They had a foothold into the Australian market which was strategic for their Epic pass plans and weren't looking to increase their Australian holdings.
Alterra wanted into the Aussie feeder market as well and was in negotiation with Merlin to acquire Hotham / Falls but were stuffing around no end. Word filtered to Vail, they thought let's keep Alterra out, knowing that neither Thredbo or Buller had any appetite to sell so picked up the phone and said we'll pay you what you want, deal done. Alterra were not happy, Merlin and Vail were. It happened very fast.
Accommodation is open, I know people who have been in lodges for the entire lockdown.
but only if they were there when lockdown began and have been sheltering in place
From the table of restrictions
Accommodation: Open to people who live in regional area. Bookings permitted for single households, intimate partners or single bubbles.
By the way, VR has also been trying to apply the same management approach to the small mountains they ended up in the east with because of the Peak Resorts acquisition. Same sort of complaints. What works in the Rockies doesn't necessarily work in New England or Pennsylvania, mostly because the local "culture" of the employees is different.
yes, you are probably right and, unfortunately, the ring fencing is making the effort too hard but ...Similar threads
