Two Years After Losing Concessions Contract, GPI Focuses on Future

Two years ago, when Glacier National Park was accepting bids for its 16-year concessions contract, most believed it was a forgone conclusion that Glacier Park Inc. would emerge victorious.

After all, GPI had held the multi-million dollar contract for more than three decades and the local roots of the company reach back even further. So it came as a surprise when officials with the National Park Service announced in August 2013 that Xanterra Parks & Resorts had beat out the company with homefield advantage.

“Our initial reaction was shock,” said GPI President Ron Cadrette a few days after the announcement. “We’ve been doing the concessions for 32 years and we thought we had put together a good bid. We thought that we would win it.”

Included in the concessions contract is the responsibility to operate the historic hotels in the park – including the Many Glacier Hotel and Lake McDonald Lodge – as well as transportation services, like the iconic Red Bus tours. The lucrative contract requires the concessioner to pay a franchise fee of 1 percent of gross receipts, which is usually $18.5 million annually.

However, two years after the company lost the coveted contract, Cadrette says GPI is poised to grow in the future and plans are already in the works to expand operations outside the park, in Whitefish, West Glacier and East Glacier Park.

“We’re in growth mode and we’re looking to expand,” Cadrette said.

GPI’s roots run deep in the region. From 1910 to 1914, Louis Hill and the Great Northern Railway commissioned the construction of nine chalets, the Glacier Park Hotel, Many Glacier Hotel and Prince of Wales Hotel. In 1914, the railway established the Glacier Park Hotel Company to manage the lodges. That same year, Roe Emery founded the Glacier Park Transportation Company with the financial backing of the White Motor Company. It was the first park in the country to offer motorized tours.

Following World War II, the Glacier Park Hotel Company was renamed the Glacier Park Company. In 1955, it absorbed the Red Bus fleet and transportation duties. Two years later, Great Northern turned the company over to Donald Knutson, who ran a construction company and owned hotels in Minnesota and North Dakota. In December 1960, Don and Gail Hummel and Don Ford purchased the company for $1.4 million and renamed it Glacier Park, Inc. Hummel sold the company in 1981 to Greyhound Food Management of Phoenix, Ariz., which eventually became the Dial Corp. In 1996, the company split into two entities: The Dial Corporation and Viad Corp., which became GPI’s parent company.

After handing over control of the Glacier properties to Xanterra in early 2014, GPI went looking for ways to expand outside the park. In July, it purchased a group of businesses in the West Glacier area that had been owned by the Lundgren family since 1946. Included in the sale were the West Glacier Motel & Cabins; the West Glacier Restaurant & Bar; the West Glacier Mercantile; and the West Glacier Gift Shop. The sale also included the Apgar Village Lodge and Cedar Tree Gift Shop, as well as 200 acres of land.

“With the acquisition of the West Glacier properties, GPI has cemented its position at the west and east gateways to the park,” Cadrette said.

Besides the properties in West Glacier, GPI also owns and operates the Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier Park, the Prince of Wales Hotel in Alberta, and St. Mary Lodge and the Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish.

Cadrette said purchasing the West Glacier property before they lost the concessions contract would have almost been impossible. That’s because much of the company’s capital had to be reinvested into the park property it did not own. Cadrette said that GPI doesn’t plan on stopping with the West Glacier purchase and he said the company expects even more expansion in the coming years.

For more information about Glacier Park Inc., visit www.glacierparkinc.com.