In addition to renting skis, most ski shops also push sales of gear and equipment. But the Charter Sports chain of shop owned by Mike Bartasuis and Ira Riklis take a different approach. For them, the focus is on providing ski rentals. Other merchandising is incidental to the rental gear and they don’t sell ski equipment. They carry sales items ranging from ski gloves and jackets to lip balm, T-shirts and scented candles. One key to their success is that none of our merchandise is seasonally based, which means they don’t take losses from year to year as fashions change.
This strategy helps protect them during bad years. Ira Riklis cites the 2008-2009 season as an example. That year, during the depths of the Great Recession, saw a drop in skier visits at resorts on the mountains of Vail, Lionshead and Beaver Creek of more than twenty-two percent. As a result, those resorts suffered a corresponding loss of Operating Earnings. In contrast, the Charter Sports shops experienced less than a ten percent drop off in earnings. In fact, in 20 years of operation, Charter Sports has never had a losing year.