NZSki is making no apologies for its controversial decisions made in the past few years. 

Speaking at an annual industry breakfast at Coronet Peak on Tuesday, NZSki boss James Coddington told Chamber of Commerce members the company made some massive investment decisions a few years ago to create a “world-class product”. 

“When I took over as ceo three years ago, NZSki was paying 340 local agents in excess of $3 million per annum to sell our products. 

“We were also giving away more than $2m worth of free-of-charge season passes and $1m of FOC day passes to industry.” 

To enable NZSki shareholders to invest more than $100m into Coronet Peak, The Remarkables and Mt Hutt in the past eight years, economies like stopping commissions to local agents and developing in-house mountain transport were necessary. 

The savings were ploughed into improvements like snow-making – meaning the ski season is now five months long instead of three, and more visitors come to town as a result, Coddington says. 

“We understand that some of these decisions have not pleased everyone in town ... but our belief is that as we reach our goal of delivering a world-class product, everyone in town will benefit.”