DENVER—Skiers and snowboarders lunching at Vail Resorts’ restaurants high in the Rockies this winter will find a wide array of all-natural burgers, hot dogs and even yogurt without a hint of chemical additives.
In a major initiative unveiled Wednesday, the nation’s largest ski operator said it was shifting away from artificially enhanced products in the wake of increasing consumer demand for healthier food.
Nearly all of the menu offerings at 40 restaurants in the company’s five ski resorts will consist of natural and organic products for lunch beginning this season. The company typically serves about 2.5 million lunches each winter.
Vail Resorts has partnered with Coleman Natural Foods and WhiteWave Foods, which manufactures Horizon Organic and Silk products, for the new venture.
During a news conference, Vail Resorts Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz declined to release financial specifics other than to say his company is making a significant investment.
Consumers, will see prices increase less than 5 percent, about typical for the yearly price hikes, he said.
Sales of organic food and beverages rose 21 percent last year to $16.7 billion, and at least some organic and natural food items can be found in restaurants from national parks to the Statue of Liberty as more consumers adopt healthier lifestyles, Organic Trade Association spokeswoman Barbara Haumann said.
“Vail Resorts is making a big commitment,” she said. “It definitely is an impressive move and will be good for farmers and producers and consumers.”
The initiative is the next building block in the Broomfield-based resort operator’s mission to endorse environmentally friendly strategies. Last year, for example, it began powering all resorts with wind-generated electricity.
Work on the food partnership began during a company “food summit” in May. Soon, they determined the biggest obstacle would be to guarantee a large enough supply to handle the needs at Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in California.
They turned to Golden-based Coleman Natural, which distributes natural and organic meat products, and Broomfield-based WhiteWave, which manufactures Horizon Organic dairy products and Silk soy-milk products.
This season, Vail Resorts figures it will need more than 447,000 pounds of various meats; and 48,000 pounds of organic butter, 137,000 pounds of organic cheese, 30,000 pounds of organic yogurt and 64,000 gallons of organic milk and cream products.
As Coleman and WhiteWave continue to make accommodations to meet the demand, Vail Resorts will start by buying about 90 percent of its fresh meats from Coleman and about 87 percent of the organic dairy products from WhiteWave, a subsidiary of Dean Foods Co. It still is working to get a sufficient quantity of some items such as eggs and ice cream.
The company also will offer some products at its Grand Teton Lodge Co., which operates lodges in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Katz said this was an initiative that the company believed it needed to do to bring food up with the rest of the company’s environmentally friendly strategies.
“The environment really is our business,” he said. “It’s timer for us to take that experience to a whole other level.”
Vail Resorts’ stock closed down 30 cents to $64.19 in Wednesday trading.
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