On the eve of the opening of the seasonwinterscheduled for Saturday December 21, if the snow in the sky does not allow an early opening, Bruno Faure assures that he wants to stay the course for the Lioran ski resort. And this, despite the financial difficulties linked to a drop in turnover for the ski area after two years of unpredictable snow cover in the Cantal ; in the face of climate change and the now numerous criticisms, even in Cantal, against an economic model which requires producing ever more snow for the pleasure of privileged skiers.
Deal with it
A locomotive for Cantal”
To build his argument, the president of the departmental council of Cantal and the Saem Lioran Development(1) denounces an unfavorable situation for four years: resort closed due to Covid while the snow was there, an energy bill having weighed down the accounts by almost a million euros and finally, bad weather in a headwind. However, and taking these situations into account (the electricity contract will be reviewed in 2026 resulting in a score divided by three), Bruno Faure wants to anticipate, prioritize, bring together in favor of what he calls “a locomotive for Cantal”. And to explain: “Today, and for some time to come, 90% of turnover is generated by skiing”, even if the summer season climbs with, in 2024, a record of €672,000. (including €98,000 for the zip line).
Snow production and ski lifts make it possible to sustain other activities and to consider additions or a change towards “four seasons”. “Without snow cannons, there is no ski school. For this, last winter, the large production requirement cost Saem dearly but this allowed the instructors to have a very good season, take Bruno Faure for example. Without cable carhow to get people to access Lead
Cantal (350,000 passages this summer)? Without chairlifts, how can mountain biking be developed? A project that we are studying to make the cable car profitable, which we will have to change in 2030, is to make the Lead Ridge more attractive as is done on other sites such as the Aiguille du Midi.”
The president of the Saem relies on the study Climsnow which makes it possible to assess the impact of climate change on the mantle
snowy.
Climsnow for beacon
A central actor certainly but one actor among others in Lioran”
“These are only averages but they give a vision up to 2050 of still being able to benefit from 86 to 110 days of snow in Lioran. This ensures that we can amortize investments on the condition that we protect ourselves from hazards with snow production which requires us to continue the plan to modernize the snow guns, with this year the Familiale slope, and the creation of a new reservoir. of water which can also be used for summer development and as a safety tool in relation to fire risk.”
So much for what concerns Saem, “a central actor certainly but one actor among others in Lioran”. For the Department, its role focuses on the ice rink which it owns with the objective of making it a multifunctional indoor and entertainment venue for conferences, seminars, shows… Here too we must ask ourselves the question of choosing an ice rink with ice that can make way for other types of surfaces depending on the services. With this perspective, but also tobogganing, ziplining, mountain biking… the objective is to make the resort more versatile, catering to skiers but also to all non-skiers (in the resort, three out of four people do not ski) . It also emphasizes the brand of the resort with its family character.
Together, with each one's responsibilities
For the Grand Phénix wasteland, the Department's role ends with putting the land back on the market. “It is not our role to provide accommodation and I hope that there will be candidates knowing that to increase the use of ski lifts to finance artificial snow, we need additional beds,” continues Bruno Faure, who suggests that if the actors of Lioran are all linked, everyone must take their responsibilities and the Saem can no longer be the firefighter on duty.
And to support: “A daycare? We have premises available; on the other hand, the competence lies with the municipalities or communities of municipalities. Mobility to extend its reach to the valleys is the responsibility of com com and the Region, etc. In the current financial context for Saem, we must anticipate, prioritize, so as not to miss the future of Lioran which remains essential for the territory's economy. And our priority is snow to operate and develop everything else and have a return on investment.”
(1) The Cantal station ski lift company, of which the Department is the main shareholder
For two weeks, Laurent Fillon has taken over the management of Saem Lioran Développement. The resort's ski lift company generates an average turnover of 7 million euros (€5 million for the last season) with 26 permanent employees and around a hundred seasonal workers in winter.
Originally from Savoie, aged 56, married to a Cantalienne and father of two children, this trained engineer began his career in Courchevel in order to fulfill his desire to work in the mountain world. He has held different positions from ski lifts, slope management, monitoring of
projects, quality, in technical positions within the Trois Vallées company. Also a member of the management board of this company, he has good experience in managing a ski area. In 2009, still in the Alps, he was called upon to become general manager of the Arêches-Beaufort station: a municipal station, €5 million in turnover, 14 ski lifts, around forty employees, very focused on alpine skiing with summer development linked to the proximity of hydroelectric lakes.
“An attractive opportunity”
“I know Cantal well, having visited there regularly for many years,” confides Laurent Fillon, who considers his arrival in Lioran to be “an attractive opportunity. So, I am not discovering the territory that I love very much, but today I am discovering Lioran with its potential and its dynamics accompanied by the Departmental Council with a real desire to maintain this economic tool. Compared to the Alps, there are new things here and therefore personally, a new challenge, notably that of reactivity in relation to snow, the desire to develop off-skiing and
strengthen the summer season. It is very different from Arêches-Beaufort which is a resort with exceptional snow cover and little desire to develop in summer”.
A tool with means
Laurent Fillon also appreciates the team of permanent staff that he discovered upon his arrival, for “their skills and their attachment to the station. There is a real working tool here. I arrive in a state of mind to perpetuate the ski activity. This will require
reactivity, adaptation. For me too, it is a diversification since there are many
activities to be managed such as
zip line, the ice rink and its bar, the deva'luge… It's an opportunity to discover new things”.
It is also about discovering the environment of the resort which does not suffer, as is the case in the Alps, from competition from very large resorts just a few kilometers away. According to him, the closure of certain stations is more linked to this competition, to the lack of anticipation and financial means more than to global warming strictly speaking. “Skiing represents a tourist activity but also an important economy for the territories,” explains
Laurent Fillon. Today we have to see it this way to talk about development and strategy with strong financial stakes.”
