Skiers and young kids hoping to get a chance to try out their sleds aren’t the only ones upset by this winter’s low snowfall levels. Chip Huntoon, owner of CH Property Services, isn’t happy with seeing his revenues slide downhill.
CH Property Services offers snow plowing and other snow removal services, but Huntoon said the unusually dry winter weather has cut into his wintertime business significantly. Revenues for this time of the year are just 10 percent of what they were at this time last year, he said.
In previous harsh winters, such as in 2007 and 2008, CH Property was generating six-figure revenue totals, compared to this season’s $10,000 to $40,000 in revenues, he said.
Those kind of numbers make Huntoon worry about being able to pay his employees.
CH Property has five snowplow trucks as well as other equipment and generally has a couple hundred clients each winter. The past two seasons have been less busy, though, with the company handling snow removal at only 12 properties last winter.
The company still services a handful of elderly customers who request snow removal no matter how minimal the snow build-up is, he said.
Huntoon said his company has offered plowing jobs in Silverton, but the cost to get his men and equipment up there makes those jobs unprofitable. CH Property Services’ most profitable months are in the spring and summer when it provides property and lawn maintenance services and other services – those services, Huntoon said, are what keeps his company afloat. Still, he said, the past few winters make him worry about being able to pay his employees.
Huntoon said he has considered selling some of his eight snowblowers, which cost him $3,000 each, but he knows he won’t make any money doing that if he sells them during the off-season. And, he said, he always remains optimistic next winter will be better.
The mild winter is hurting other companies, too, such as Vandegrift Diesel, which sells and repairs snow-removal equipment.
Owner Todd Vandegrift said his plow sales went up by 50 percent just prior to this winter, then they dropped off. He attributes the bump in sales to the Farmer’s Almanac, which was predicting a wet and heavy winter.
That hasn’t been the case in Durango, though, and he’s had very few customers coming in needing their snowplows repaired.
“When there’s no snow, there’s no customers breaking their plows,” he said.
The company also sells second-hand equipment, and the store owner has noticed his used snowplows are not selling this year. He said, by now, most of them would have been gone if there had been more snow, he said.
Other local companies involved in snow removal declined to go on the record about any financial difficulties they are facing due to lack of demand.
“For anyone in the snowremoval business, times are kind of tough right now because they are sitting around,” Vandegrift said.
vguthrie@durangoherald.com
Todd Vandegrift’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story, Vandegrift Diesel, also was misspelled.
