 Poster: A snowHead
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 To compound the CDA's problems (see today's thread ref the 'derailment' of the Tignes cable car), we hear rumours of heated discussions between the Compagnie des Alpes, the no. 1 lift company in France, and the Tarentaise resorts in the Savoie.
Today's events will no doubt serve to heighten local fears over the effects of privatisation. We often hear of safety concerns about 'budget-level' efficiency, caused by efforts to drive up profitability at the expense of safety standards, in newly privatised industry.
News has reached snowHeads of tensions between certain Savoie resorts and the Compagnie des Alpes. Local representatives fear the gradual privatisation of the Group, and see an allegedly increasing lack of transparency with respect to CDA medium term strategy as justification for their fears. The financial stakes are enormous.
Established in 1989 the CDA is a subsidiary of the State-managed financial institution “Caisse des Dépôts”, composed of 14 companies responsible for the equipping and operational management of most of the largest French, Swiss and Italian ski domains. Just six months ago the Caisse des Dépôts announced its intention to lower its stake from 52.7% to 40%.
Representatives of the resorts see this as synonymous with a creeping privatization, one which threatens to bleed the region of the profits generated by “white tourism”. Their fears have been further accentuated by “evasive replies” from management on the Group’s future strategy. Roland Didier, CDA Managing Director responsible for lift operations has spoken of “local and occasional misunderstandings … which are rapidly resolved”.
Notwithstanding these assurances, local discontent is gaining ground and some elected officials are now openly speaking of withdrawing the franchise, and taking lift operation control back from the CDA. Representatives of both sides are meeting on the 26th of November in an attempt to resolve differences.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Speaking from the point of view of someone workingin a resort which is run by a private lift company, I think they're a bad idea. The DAL in LDA do what they please, fail to pull together with the rest of the Commercents, and are more or less impossible to deal with.
Ski lifts are much better run by collectives of the locals who have a real interest in clustomer satisfaction.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| easiski wrote: |
| ...Ski lifts are much better run by collectives of the locals .... |
Thought all the major French lift companies were (I can do out of touch). Somewhat concerned to learn that's not the case.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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easiski, here's an example of the intransigent profiteering that often results. The little Chiaupe glacier in La Plagne has operated for a month during the summer, mainly for the benefit of locals and local teams, for years. Hardly a commercial proposition of course, but then again, with just one chair lift operating, a piste basher and crew, income must go some way to covering costs. In the grand CDA scheme of things, if losses are being made, they are surely microscopic.
Nonetheless the pressure is on. The CDA wants to close the summer operation down. This despite, according to the local authority, when signing the agreement for the lease gaining the assurances of the lessees that they would maintain the summer ski area. Another conflict in the pipeline, for peanuts.
Shortsighted as well. Jean-Luc Crétier trained on that little glacier in the summer, brought up in La Plagne, member of the club. The lift companies are only too happy to claim Olympic gold medallists as their own, when it suits them, to boost theit profits, using the big names to attract the tourists. yet how do they think they get to that level?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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PG, absolutely! That's disgusting, but the DAL would close LDA if it weren't for the italians. I was told in no uncertain terms this year that they don't care how bad it is for the town. The Italians keep the lifts open - if that means fewer pistes for ordinary skiers then tough! Of course they charge the ordinary skiers the same! 
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