The boss of Nevis Range has hailed his “extraordinarily resilient” staff for remaining cheerful through one of its “most difficult years”, as poor weather conditions battered the Lochaber mountain resort’s business in 2017.
Hit by a lack of snow and closed for 30 days because of high winds, the centre, on Aonach Mor mountain near Fort William, suffered its second worst winter last winter since its 1989 opening, according to its annual results for the 12 months to the end of last October.
A snow sports season that got off to a bad start with the storm-lashed slopes only open for two days over the Christmas period came to an “abrupt end” following a major thaw on March 29, with the resort having recorded a “dismal total” of 10,200 skier days, compared with 26,760 the previous year.
Although it was followed by “remorseless rain throughout the summer,” visitor numbers held up, with a notable increase in tourists from Asia and China and a weekend-long mountain biking world cup event attracting record crowds. The impact of the weather was revealed in operator Nevis Range Development Company’s financial statements for the year, released by Companies House. They show that pre-tax profits slid to £14,678, from £192,309 in 2015-16, although turnover rose slightly to £3.15million from £3.08million over the same period. They recorded a loss for its most recent financial year of £19,064.
In his foreword to the accounts, managing director Peter MacFarlane said: “Throughout this very difficult year our team have been extraordinarily resilient. In the winter our ski instructors, patrol and lifties kept cheerful and optimistic throughout while in the summer the construction and fencing team kept going in miserable weeks of pouring rain.”
Yesterday Mr MacFarlane said the current season was proving the “complete opposite” of the last, with the slopes still open to skiers and snowboarders. The company had an average-month workforce of 100 in 2016-17.
