Paris (AFP)
Buoyed by a good season at its resorts and a strong performance in its leisure parks, Compagnie des Alpes, world leader in ski area operations, recorded a record net profit of 62.2 million euros.
The group has eleven ski resorts (Tignes, Val d'Isère, Les Deux Alpes, Les Arcs ...) and leisure destinations such as Parc Astérix, Futuroscope, Musée Grévin and Walibi Parks.
With a profit up 8.8% over one year, "it's a very good year" 2018/2019, "the realization of our investment strategy," said Tuesday to AFP CEO Dominique Marcel, recalling that the company had "invested more than one billion euros in six years" in its two businesses.
In its ski areas, it aims to "accelerate the digital and especially + customer knowledge +, to promote the net creation of beds and improve the occupancy rate", not to mention the fight against climate change, Dominique Marcel emphasizes.
"We are well aware that this is a major challenge and that there is still a lot of work, we are already working to limit our footprint, in terms of energy with green electricity, but also, for example, by recovering chairlifts and drag lifts that are dismantled and reassembled elsewhere, by limiting the number of pylons and cables, or by building hill reserves "to store water," he explains.
Asked about the "industrial partnership" formed a year ago with the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, Dominique Marcel said that his group "worked with them on the project of + Skidome + (an indoor ski resort, located in the Shanghai area We are still on a joint venture project.The idea is to have pragmatic cooperation, project by project ".
Regarding the winter season that is opening, the Compagnie des Alpes indicates that in its stations, the "state of reservations is experiencing a slightly higher dynamic" compared to the same period a year ago, and that the first snowfall "allow to consider opening the areas in good conditions".
© 2019 AFP