In Mont-dore, the situation is no longer tenable. While the February holidays end in a week, this Puy-de-Dôme ski resort achieves only 21% of its objectives. This is the reason why the board of directors of the Saem du Mont-Dore decided to place the station in receivership, reports the newspaper La Montagne.
"The station is not going to close," assured the director of Saem, Patrick Déat. "If the board of directors has decided to set up a receivership procedure, it is first to save jobs and give itself time to smooth the accounts and give itself the means to bounce back", a he announced Thursday to the 21 permanent employees and 30 seasonal workers who work at the station.
Normally, the February holidays represent 65% of the turnover for the season. But today, the Mont-Dore station has a turnover deficit of 1.7 million euros. The cause: the lack of snow. As La Montagne recalls, the rain-snow limit, which determines the snow cover of a resort, has gone from 1,200 meters above sea level in the 1960s to around 1,500 meters today. What to put in difficulty the stations of medium mountain, like Mont-Dore.
Diversify
“We are currently at 21% of our objectives (625,000 euros on February 24), knowing that in a good season, we achieve a turnover of 5 million euros in winter and 900,000 euros during summer ”, continues Patrick Déat. But if the snow continues to fall in the coming days, it will still be possible to "limit the breakage," he believes.
However, Patrick Déat assures him, the station had anticipated the difficulties, investing massively in the snow guns. But if it is not cold enough, impossible to make them work.