Small, but perfectly formed

She is now up at the top of the ski business, but Corri Boyle began at the bottom. In the winter of 1984 she was a chalet girl in Serre Chevalier, where her employer, Just Ski, had its one and only chalet. At that time, during the UK's second big skiing boom, a lot of small ski companies were born – and given eager, fresh-faced names like Ski Biz and Rock On.

Many died young, too, victims of the poor snow in the late Eighties. Among them was Just Ski; and in 1990 Ms Boyle (whose first name is a contraction of Corinne) found herself looking for a new employer.

Panorama, the company Ms Boyle joined as ski product manager, had a name that accurately reflected a broader focus than Just Ski's. But it was no big-time ski operator. It then offered holidays in only two destinations, Livigno in Italy and Andorra. And in the winter of 1991 it sold just 3,576 ski trips.

Ms Boyle took a break in 2000, but she is now back with Panorama as its head of "specialist products", which include ski holidays. Since she originally joined the company its ski operation grew, she says, at an average of about 20 per cent per year, at least until 2001/2. That season, sales increased from 30,000 to 43,000, a jump of more than 40 per cent – achieved at a time when the total UK ski market was up only 3.6 per cent on the previous year. As a result the company broke into the top six UK ski operators, displacing Airtours from a group which had consistently maintained its grip on skiing's mass market since the mid-Nineties.

What is the secret of Panorama's success? Many factors are involved; but Ms Boyle admits that the secret is essentially the success of Andorra.

Last season, as Panorama was taking its place among the big ski operators, Andorra was consolidating its position as the fourth most popular destination for UK skiers, and increasing its share of the market to almost 14 per cent – more than Switzerland, the USA and Canada put together (countries which, if they were put together, would occupy 40,000 times as much territory as Andorra). And which company takes most British skiers to Andorra? Panorama, with – by its own estimate – about 40 per cent of the UK market. Its brochure for this season covers France (six resorts), Austria (five) and Italy (two) as well as Andorra (three); but almost 50 per cent of its ski customers go to Andorra.

This tiny, 450sqkm principality, wedged between France and Spain in the Pyrenees, decided it should become a ski destination in the late Fifties. It had no ski infrastructure to speak of, and none of the ski heritage fostered (mainly by Britons) in the Alps. But it did have a buoyant economy thanks to its duty-free and (almost) tax-free status, and one of the highest per-capita incomes in Europe; and its administration was prepared to back the plan with public funds.

The initial investment went into funding some cheap-and-cheerless hotels, notably at Pas de la Casa (now so big that it could accommodate every native Andorran on the same night), and some merely adequate ski-lifts. But the quality of the accommodation and the efficiency of the lifts – into which more than £50m has recently been invested – have increased dramatically.

Panorama concentrated on Andorra, explains Ms Boyle, "because even when the pound wasn't doing well, you could always get a lot for your money there. And although so much money was being invested in the infrastructure, the skiing remained very affordable. The cost of a full ski-pack – a lift-pass, skis and boots, and tuition – has only recently exceeded £100 a week."

Ms Boyle characterises Panorama in the Nineties as having a "young and lively" appeal – which accorded perfectly with Andorra, known for its low prices, vibrant night-life (fuelled by duty-free alcohol) and Anglophone ski schools. "We made a name for ourselves as the Andorra operator. But we needed to get people to think of us for other places, which is why we grew the programme." A first venture into Bulgaria proved only temporarily successful; a foothold in Italy's Sauze d'Oulx – another "young and lively" area – proved more secure. By the end of the Nineties, resorts in France and Austria had been added, places with more tradition that also offered more challenging skiing than Andorra. But the programme remains small. "We're going to stay focused on key places: I don't see Panorama ever offering 100 resorts," says Boyle.

The market leader, Crystal, currently has 133 resorts in its 364-page brochure; Panorama has 16 resorts spread over 100 pages. "The fact that our programme is small makes us more efficient," she points out. She might have added that with half her customers travelling to such a compact area as Andorra, she can keep resort operating costs low, too.

The holidays offered do have to reflect market changes, and as Andorra has developed so has Panorama's programme there. Although a week's self-catering in Soldeu is on offer from £229, "the key to Andorra is now not so much that you get a cheap holiday," says Ms Boyle, "rather that you can have a top-quality holiday for the same price that you would pay for two-star accommodation elsewhere. Our best-selling properties are the four-to-five-star stuff."

The profile of the British skier is changing, too. "We're seeing more families now: people who skied in the boom years of the Eighties but then fell out of the market are coming back, with growing children." The result is that Panorama is looking more mature this season. It has introduced family accommodation and for the first time is offering a variety of forms of child care – "facilities which I appreciate that other companies have been offering for a while," Boyle says with a smile.

Another change is that Panorama, now part of the giant MyTravel group, no longer expects to grow sales by 20 per cent every year. Ms Boyle is philosophical about the likelihood that this season's market will be sluggish. This may be partly because she has a distance-event mentality (in her break from Panorama she spent nine weeks cycling 4,300 miles across the US), but also because a company that grew 40 per cent last season also needs a break.

Still, some things don't change. Ms Boyle says that sales in Italy for 2002/3 are down, Austria is stable and France is growing – but only thanks to a bigger programme there. And Andorra? "It just keeps going strong: our sales are up there."

Panorama: 0870 750 50 60

(www.panoramaholidays.co.uk)