Newfound results and re-structuring announcements

Newfound NV released their annual results today, and at the same time announced major changes to the management structure, and corporate financing.

The following is the Humber Valley part of the Chairmans statement:
"At the beginning of the year the sales strategy was altered to attract high net worth purchasers to Humber Valley Resort in Newfoundland, Canada. This strategy has taken longer to deliver results than originally envisaged with new sales of US$ 4.7million which was below expectations, although in addition there were a number of re-sales.

We believe that there is a market for our product at Humber Valley at the US$ 750,000 level as evidenced by the re-sale market and from early 2008 this is where we have been concentrating our marketing efforts.

Since the autumn we have focused on vacation marketing to Humber Valley. This is an important aspect of the business as it gives a momentum throughout the year, increases our operational revenues and some of our vacationers have gone on to purchase property. We have now signed agreements with a number of Tour Operators who can sell vacations to the resort. Most of these Tour Operators are based in Europe and Canada, but due to the time lag in operators publishing their brochures and websites, we expect the main impact to be felt from the 2008/2009 ski season.

Humber Valley Resort's occupancy in 2007 rose by 18% over 2006 resulting in an increase in operational revenues in local currency of 16%. The first three months of 2008 showed further progress. Going forward, we are looking for further suitable agents for the North American markets and focussing on the conversion of vacation leads and enquiries into real bookings as well as enhancing our web based sales and marketing strategy.

Our current owners at Humber Valley are our best marketing avenue and we have been talking with many of them to see how we can improve the operations there. This has resulted in a review of the way the accommodation rental pool is operated to make it more simple and transparent. Priorities have been set for infrastructure capital spending that is required to benefit both owners and vacationers and improve the existing facilities.

As mentioned in my statement last year, we have been addressing the construction issues and although some still remain we did achieve our aim of accelerating the construction program during 2007 and we are making healthy margins on new build. During the year, we carried out significant construction work on over 60 chalets resulting in an increase in revenue in local currency from construction and furnishings of 66% to US$ 21.3 million. We have nearly completed the construction backlog inherited at the time of the Newfound acquisition in 2006 and, subject to suitable funding being in place, it is hoped that all of the remaining outstanding contracts will be started during 2008.

In 2007, the first full year of operation of the 18 hole golf course, we won four prestigious awards including Golf Magazine (golf.com) Best New International Course 2007 and ScoreGolf Magazine's Best Canadian New Golf Course 2007. The credit for this must go to our Golf manager and his team.

We have recently signed an agreement with Monarch Airlines to run a weekly Boeing 757 from Gatwick to Deer Lake to cover both the summer and winter seasons, thus supporting the expected increase in vacation traffic. Although the charter at present makes a financial loss until such time as vacation numbers increase, it is an important part of both the operations at Humber Valley Resort and its future development."

In addition todays annoucement included a new CEO, and a future new Chairman with Jeremy White standing down as Chairman when the right replacement is found.

Jayne McGivern, the former chief executive of Multiplex's UK arm, has taken over as head of a Newfound. McGivern, who left Multiplex in February in the wake of its takeover by Canada-based Brookfield last summer, was this morning appointed CEO of a new management team at Newfound.

Read the full statement - ShareCrazy or Newfoundresorts.com announcements
We're CrazyAboutNewfoundland.com - Are you?

Newfoundland iceberg spotting season

People have begun to flock to the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador on a hunt for icebergs, according to the Canadian Tourism Commission. The stretch of water between the northern tip of Labrador and the eastern shores of the Avalon Peninsula is known as iceberg alley at this time of year, when the sea carries mountains of ice close to land.
Icebergs tens of thousands of years old, which were once part of the Greenland icecap, are buffeted by wind and tide, breaking into smaller chunks before melting in the warm waters south of Newfoundland and Labrador.
According to the International Ice Patrol, 2008 could be a highly active year for iceberg sightings. The agency has been monitoring the movement of the ice since February and has reported more than 500 icebergs moving south from Greenland, compared to only 50 last year. Newfoundland and Labrador rely on iceberg-spotting as part of their tourism industries and visitors can join organised kayak or boat tours, or can simply stand on the shoreline to watch the massive bodies of ice float by.
Story: Opodo

FOR SALE: Strawberry Hill Resort

"Every asset of most companies is for sale at the right price at the right time" ... and for Humber Valley Resort that includes its Strawberry Hill Resort. Strawberry Hill is up for sale for a cool £3.3M (approx $6.7M).

Its being marketed through "Country Life", as potential boutique hotel, corporate lodge, or even as a private home.

Being the only real fine dining restaurant in the area - we've all got to hope it remains a tourism commercial property - the valley is desperate for cafes and restaurants!

Country Life - web advert - The Western Star - Story

Evening Snowmobile Ride on Marble Mountain

We team up with local friend John and his wife Marilyn, and her two sisters - for a night time snowmobile ride. WOW - this was good. Its snowing, with a full moon, and of course freezing cold. The ride, starting from My Newfoundland Adventures shop at Steady Brook, goes up the side of Marble Mountain (due south) ... and is a clearly marked trail. (Its the one MNA use for their 2 hour ride for first timers.

Frustratingly for local snowmobilers, the trail is not groomed often enough ... but even so, its a good run, and after about 40 minutes we arrive at the Chill-Down-Shack.

From Snowmobiling-...

These shacks are maintained by the Trial Association - all local snowmobile owners buy a trial sticker (approx $75 pa) which helps support the grooming and shacks etc - its really an oversized garden shed ... but equally, a welcome sight when its cold and you're looking to warm up and have some lunch! Inside is a iron stove, a pile of wood and a picnic bench. Its clean, tidy and obviously cared for - despite the remoteness of its location ... (wouldn't last one night in the UK without being burnt down by some dim-wit youth!).

John connects a cable from the shack to his snowmobile and suddenly theres lights in the cabin. (How very unexpected, and civilised). He reappears in the shack with an axe (!!) and quickly dices up some logs, sets the fire, and breaks out the hot chocolate. We all share stories about our Dog Sledding experiences in Gros Morne - and general amusement about the snowmobile ride.

Interestingly, the three sisters keep referring to Cinderella - but we've not yet worked out which one is which (if you see what I mean).

We clear our mess, and fire up the sleds - and in 40 short minutes we're back down at the base of Marble Mountain. We're all very happy, smiling and generally feeling we've had another great evening - beats wasting a night watching Eastenders, or worst, spending the night flicking through the Canadian satellite channels ... and I thought Sky was poor ... not any more!

Joking apart ... we've had a great evening - you should try an "Evening Snowmobile Ride" - A lot of fun!

HVR Owners: Sheldon leaves HVR

Sheldon Colbourne (HVR Construction Manager, amongst several recent new titles) leaves Humber Valley Resort early April. Our understanding is he has recently resigned, and is joining a new company on the east coast of NFLD near St Johns.

We wish him, and his family (which now includes twins!) the very best of luck, in their new venture.
KDG.

New-found-land - An Ideal Place For Winter Sports

"An Ideal Place For Winter Sports”

“The reality of Newfoundland is far different than my misguided perceptions. The province is farther south in latitude than England, and the climate is fairly temperate. The average winter temperature is minus-5 degrees Celsius (about 23 degrees Fahrenheit), and in late February and March, sunny days often outnumber any other climatic pattern. All this makes Newfoundland an ideal place for winter sports—from skiing to snowmobiling.”

By Peggy Shinn SkiSnowboard.com & MSNBC

As we kicked and glided along the frozen, snow-covered fjord, we weren’t really watching where our skis were going. The surrounding 2,500-foot snowy mountains, set against a cloudless blue sky with their ice-speckled cliff faces plunging into the fjord, kept our attention focused upward. We heard melt-water pouring off a snowfield high in a glacial cirque to our left and a raven cawing in a stubby spruce forest to our right. Far ahead, the fjord narrowed and vanished around a bend.

We stopped to drink from our water bottles and apply more sunscreen. Wearing two shirts, a fleece top, and a jacket, I was sweltering in the late February sun in a mountain landscape I thought only existed in the Alps or Alaska. Who knew Newfoundland was so warm? And so stunning? Where was the fog? The frigid arctic temperatures? The feeling that we were at the end of the earth, or at least close to it?

My perception of Newfoundland—garnered from reading “The Shipping News” by Anne Proulx (who called the island “six thousand miles of coast blind-wrapped in fog”), “The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float” by Canadian author Farley Mowat (who wrote, “most Southern Shore Newfoundlanders acquire a taste for rum soon after abandoning their mothers’ breasts”), a few Newfie jokes remembered from junior high school, and just looking at a map—was that it was a desolate, desperate, windswept place somewhere near Greenland and populated by drunken misfits. I half expected to be served Screech, the province’s unique form of rum, and cod tongue at every meal.

The reality of Newfoundland is far different than my misguided perceptions. The province is farther south in latitude than England, and the climate is fairly temperate. The average winter temperature is minus-5 degrees Celsius (about 23 degrees Fahrenheit), and in late February and March, sunny days often outnumber any other climatic pattern. Even more welcome news: Without the winter rains that often plague New England, Newfoundland’s prodigious snow-pack stays soft, similar to the snow in the Rockies. All this makes Newfoundland an ideal place for winter sports—from skiing to snowmobiling.

Our trip began with two beautiful days backcountry skiing in Gros Morne National Park, an isolated stretch of wilderness punctuated by dramatic land-locked fjords and tree-less mountains. The map had labeled the large land-locked fjords (which became land-locked after the glaciers retreated thousands of years ago) as “ponds”—and we soon learned that Newfoundlanders are prone to understatement. We kicked and glided for three hours until we reached Bakers Brook Pond, which was at least five miles long. After spending the night in park-service-maintained hut, we explored the stunning “pond,” making the only ski tracks that day across its snowy surface.

After our backcountry adventure, we headed south to Marble Mountain, Newfoundland’s major ski resort. Situated on an escarpment that plunges 1,700 vertical feet down to the shores of the salmon-filled Humber River, Marble has some serious skiing on gloriously soft snow. Locals claim that the lack of winter rain and freeze-thaw cycles keeps the snow softer than at Eastern ski resorts in the U.S. And with so few skiers and snowboarders, even on weekends, the place felt like our own.

Although Marble, with its 1,700 vertical feet and 35 trails, is small by destination resort standards, the entire region—Newfoundland’s central west coast—has a surprising number of amenities and activities. The resort itself has a modern 54,000-square-foot post-and-beam base lodge, and a small collection of ski-in/ski-out condominiums called Marble Villa. Ten minutes up the Trans Canada Highway, the Humber Valley Resort rents truly luxury homes. Families and friends can rent well-appointed 2,200-8,000 square-foot homes for the week for a fraction of the cost in the States or Europe. Three British friends sharing a Humber Valley chalet, as the homes are called, paid 1,200 Euros for the entire week. And they each had their own bedroom and bathroom.

The resort also offers a cruise-ship-style menu of activities—snowmobile tours, snowshoeing treks, helicopter skiing expeditions, or any other activity ever tried on snow. Humber Valley even has its own full-service spa. Yes, a pedicure in Newfoundland. Who would have thought?
Perhaps one of the best places to soak in the splendor of this remote island province is in the Blomidon (literally blow-me-down) Mountains, a 20-minute drive southwest of Marble Mountain. Blomidon Cat Skiing —the only snowcat skiing operation in the East—takes up to eight people and two guides in a Bombardier BR400 snowcat from the spruce and birch forests surrounding the Humber River Valley up to the treeless bowls and pistes of the Blomidons. From here, the views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence set against the barren Alpine slopes are worth the price of admission.

As we sat near an Alpine brook eating a picnic lunch, I picked up a rust-colored rock, one of many littering the brook’s bed. “That’s part of the earth’s mantle,” said our guide and Blomidon Cat Skiing owner Glenn Noel. He went on to say that this is one of the few places on earth where the mantle was thrust to the surface eons ago.

I looked up at the piste we had skied before lunch—a 25- to 30-degree face delineated by more rust-colored rock outcroppings. How many people can say they have skied the earth’s mantle, I wondered. Not many, I guessed. The Blomidons probably see as many skiers and snowboarders in a decade as more popular backcountry ski operations on the mainland see in a month.

Then it dawned on me. Maybe Newfoundlanders don’t want their secret out. Maybe they like the fact that mainlanders perceive the island as a desolate wasteland, that it’s not yet “found” by many people, except for them. For then they can keep the splendor all to themselves.

But I quickly backpedaled. Newfoundlanders not share? No way. They are far too generous not to share. They are the kind of folks who personally call you if your flight is delayed or share their stash of caribou sausage. As for the Screech and cod tongues, they shared those, too. But only when we asked.
By Peggy Shinn SkiSnowboard.com & MSNBC ... and credit to Gary Kelly

Deer Lake Airport - Astraeus out & Monarch in

After a number of years enabling flights between London and Deer Lake, Astraeus (Flystar) announced this week that they will be ending their charter flights with Humber Valley Resort as of April 18th 2008.

Its understood that Monarch will be taking over, and Humber Valley Resort will be making their formal annoucement shortly. Flights in summer 2008 will be on a Thursday.

Full story - Western Star or FlyStar.com & Monarch