A suggestion for Dominique Thillaud, new CEO of Compagnie des Alpes (CDA), the world’s leading operator of ski areas and owner of Parc Astérix and Futuroscope: consider sending a greeting card, or even a ski pass, to Bruno Le Mayor. Because at the end of a 2019-2020 financial year marked by the ban on ski lifts and the closure of leisure parks seven months out of the year, the Compagnie des Alpes is approaching winter in a miraculous situation, well helped by Bercy and its first shareholder, the Caisse des Dépôts.
Despite the lack of income from its ski areas, it has limited his losses (- 121 million euros, of which a small half in depreciation of assets) and even generated a positive gross operating surplus. This thanks to state aid, amounting to 189 million euros, operating savings and a decrease in investment in parks.
With two loans guaranteed by the State and rescheduled – 469 million euros -, and a successful capital increase – 231 million – the CDA says it is able to increase its rate of investment compared to the previous one. crisis. Greening of the resorts, diversification of its activities in the mountains, expansion of its main parks but renouncing its ambitions in distant countries: the group, which aims to return to profits from this financial year, displays an appetite that is more reasoned than before. the Covid-19.
“Territorial companion”
During the pandemic, the Compagnie des Alpes split its management. The former CEO Dominique Marcel, with a very political profile, kept the chairmanship of the board of directors and the view of the Opéra Garnier, and handed over the general management and the largest office to Dominique Thillaud. A fifty-year-old trained in finance before building a CV as a mobility specialist, going through the SNCF and the Airports of the Côte d’Azur (Nice, Cannes, Saint-Tropez).
Is it to appease certain elected officials in the mountains, who suspect the CDA of serving its shareholders better than the municipalities? M. Thillaud shows himself to be extremely considerate. “The real boss of the station is the mayor, he assures the World. We propose, they dispose. We are a companion in the territory, and not only when things are going well. ”
In support of his remarks, Dominique Thillaud highlights the maintenance of heavy investments, in particular for the delivery of new cable cars, and their increase in the future, with some 500 million euros to be committed for the next six years: “Very large devices, which rise high with a high capacity, replace old devices which are costly in terms of maintenance and energy. The customer saves skiing time, and visual intrusion is limited by removing stations and pylons. “
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