Business For Sale - Snowscene Ski and Board Turangi

BUSINESS FOR SALE

Are you wanting to do something different and own your own cool lifestyle business?

Do you want to be busy in the 4 cold wet winter months [yes ONLY 4 months] and have the rest of the 8 months [spring, summer and autumn] off?

Do you want to do heaps of skiing midweek?

This could be the business for you.

Snowscene Ski and Board is for sale and you could be the next owner to take the business to another level. This business would benefit from an injection of new blood, new ideas, new passion.

The current owners are looking to retire and pursue other interests. This would be a great opportunity for a young couple, family, or extended family to take over and keep building on the success this business had had for 44 years.

This is our 44^th season and we have been the same family owners since 1981, now being run by 3^rd generation family members.

For 44 years the snow has fallen every winter, some heavier than others, providing us with pretty much guaranteed income every year.

ABOUT US

We are predominantly a hire company and we specialise in ski, snowboard and clothing hire for beginner to intermediate skiers and boarders. Happy Valley at Whakapapa Ski Area is usually open from 1 July and a large part of the turnover would be generated from customers utilising this beginner area.

A large growing segment of the business is the hireage of clothing and walk boots for snow play. This market has been steadily growing since the opening of Sky Waka at Whakapapa in 2018. A large portion of Whakapapa’s customer base is sightseers which will continue to grow. We see continued growth in this market and extra investment in clothing and investment would support this.

We have phased out of retail in the last couple of years, but we see a big opportunity to invest in a specialist ski and board retail shop in the northern Mt Ruapehu region. We would liken a shop like this to be not too dissimilar from Gnomes Ski Shop in Darfield – small town, close to the ski field and a destination store.

The business acquired the Turangi Ski assets in 2022 and so has enjoyed the northern Ruapehu hire market to itself, with plenty of scope to improve. We are the only specialist hire company north of Mt Ruapehu.

You could add on other items such as mountain bikes and kayaks.

The business currently operates in Tokaanu, however this building is not for sale – a new owner would need to find their own premises.

The business would be best situated in Turangi where you can capture all the traffic that goes to Mt Ruapehu from SH1 and continue to service the western bays townships. There is a building for sale at 25 Turanga Place that would be perfect.

Maybe you already have a business or a building you can utilise – this business would be a great winter add-on.

The business would benefit greatly from new owners and a marketing strategy, advertising, and more presence.

The business is turnkey – all the gear is serviced and ready to go. Walk in and start hiring out on 1 July [or whenever Mt Ruapehu ski fields open – weather and snow dependent]. The business is good to go for the next 2-3 years without additional investment. There is a good amount of new gear ready to drop into the fleet as/when required. It would be beneficial though to spend a small amount on new rental gear every year so you don’t get hit with a larger than expected spend in a few years’ time.

BUSINESS

What you get –

·        500 sets of skis [+/-] (includes 50 brand new sets, 50 near new sets, and 200 older tier 2 sets for school groups)

·        650 pairs of ski boots [+/-] (includes 300 older tier 2 pairs for school groups)

·        100 snowboards/bindings [+/-] (includes 25 new/near new boards)

·        100 pairs of snowboard boots [+/-]

·        Plenty of ski poles, predominately fibreglass

·        Plenty of rental pants / jackets / suits / helmets / walk boots /goggles / sleds for both public hire and school groups.

·        Retail stock in trade - Gloves/helmets/socks/goggles – value approx. 6-8k.

·        1 x Montana MC2000 crystal glide ski base grinder

·        1 x Montana MCS side edge grinder

·        1 x Venini 10 3 snowboard grinder with feed head

·        1 x Montana GM-U base edge grinder with feed head (currently being used as a buffing machine)

·        1 x wide hot wax machine

·        1 x Wintersteiger wax buffing machine

·        All the tools of the trade to perform ski/snowboard servicing and repairs

·        11 x ski storage racks, 4 x snowboard storage racks

·        6 x 240v plug-in boot dryers [51 pair total]

·        All the assorted shelving/racking/displays etc required to hold all the gear.

·        Assorted retail display shelves/racks

·        Highly ranked website and domain name – snowscene.co.nz .

·        Everything you need to operate the business and service the equipment. The gear is a good mix of newer and older gear.

·        3 x TV’s for shop displays.

·        Modern SAM4S till

Note: hire gear quantities are approximate.

PRICE

How do you value a business such as this?

We are offering it all for $20,000 + GST [if any] plus retail stock at cost [approx. $6,000 + GST]. You will easily recoup that in your first year plus have surplus to start buying replacement hire gear, plus pay yourself a good wage.

PREMISES

The current Tokaanu premises is not for sale.

A great option would be - 25 Turanga Place, Turangi [the old Turangi Ski Hire building] – freehold land and building with extra storage sheds/container. Excellent profile and exposure to Highway 41, easy access, safe cul-de-sac and plenty of parking.

This was the original Turangi Ski Hire building and was purpose built. Land is zoned industrial. Plenty of space to live on site in a motorhome or shift a tiny home on site and let it out for 8 months on Airbnb.

Perhaps move all the hire gear into a container over summer and set this building up as an Airbnb.

Or, add a few more windows, install a kitchen/bathroom and live there permanently. Move all the gear into the container over summer and enjoy your 8 months off and in the winter move all the gear inside and start trading. Sounds easy…it actually is!

Other options for premises would be the town centre Turangi. There are a number of empty shops in that mall complex.

Perhaps you could negotiate a short term lease, set up a pop up store for the four months and then store everything at home over the summer, and do all your workshop work at home. Everything you need to run the business is portable.

Or you may know over other lease buildings in Turangi.

FINANCIAL

Sales.

Income over the past 6 years has averaged $170,000 [GST excl] per season.

Overhead expenses.

The overhead costs are whatever you want to make it.

Rent / Rates / Building Insurance -  It could be you own a building and pay rates/insurance/interest or it could be a leased building where you pay rent/rates/insurance. This is up to you to determine.

Telephone/Internet – however expensive you want it to be. A Spark internet/landline currently costs $140 per month. You may be able to get a plan where you only pay for 4 months.

Website – currently costs approx. $85 per month [Shopify/domain name etc]

Eftpos lease – currently $81 per month. You may be able to get a plan where you only pay for 4 months.

Electricity – currently $3000 per annum.

Insurance – a fair estimate for gear/retail stock replacement, Public and Statutory liability would be $2k.

Repairs and maintenance – a generous estimate for expenses relating to maintaining the gear would be $2000 per annum. Types of expenses include – heels and toes for boots, sandpapers for grinding machines, grinding emulsion, cleaning/sanitising products, clothing repairs, glue, etc etc.

Wages – as high or as low as you want to make it. If you have extended family that can help on weekends/holidays then wages will be low. Wages for part timers have averaged approx. $15k per annum over the past five years. Wages depends on how busy the season is and the weather.

Replacement gear.

To keep the gear new, in good condition, and modern, a fair estimate would be say a $10 – 20k spend per annum on replacement gear. As discussed above there is a good number of new skis and snowboards ready to put into the fleet. Ski and board boots and helmets would need adding to every year [some sizes you won’t need to change for many years]. Poles are good for a few more years yet. Clothing is all in great condition but a few additions soon would not go amiss. Walkboots will require a replacement spend soon.

Suggested Cashflow [000s - GST excl]

All genuine enquires please email hello@snowscene.co.nz