Financial results

[themeparkgc]

So financial results for 2011-2012 have recently been released and I thought I'd make this topic as a stub for discussion when future results are released as well. Ardent Leisure on the whole improved but the theme park division suffered immensely. Revenue dropped 7.7% as a result of a 21.8% drop in attendance. The company blames this on the rainfall that the coast has received during the holiday periods. Their outlook mentions the destined for December this year. Full results presentation is available here. Village Roadshow also had a drop in profit for its Gold Coast parks ($33.2m to $29.3m) which could be partially attributed to a slight decrease in attendance of 300,000. The US water parks are looking like they will make a profit in the next financial year, settling with a loss of $800,000 this year. They report the best ever launch for the VIP pass this year and plan to spend between $25 and $30 million this financial year on the parks. Also, Wet'n'Wild Sydney is still scheduled to open in December next year. Full results presentation is available here. Below is an article from the Gold Coast Bulletin about the results:

New attractions keep numbers up at parks A $40 MILLION spending spree by Village Roadshow kept people flowing through the gates of its three Gold Coast theme parks last financial year. But it was not such a good year for its rival, Ardent Leisure, which had a 21.8 per cent drop in numbers at its three Coast attractions. Almost 600,000 fewer people visited Ardent Leisure's Dreamworld, White Water World and the Skypoint attraction last year compared to the year before. The park operator blamed bad weather in peak periods and the decision to issue fewer discount park passes for the decline. But the numbers were released on the same day that Village Roadshow reported much better attendance figures for Warner Bros Movie World, Wet'n Wild and Sea World. Village Roadshow local boss Bob White said the $40 million investment in attractions and success of the VIP pass had kept numbers up. "We feel that it is critical to continue to invest, especially in an environment where you have repeat visitation," he said. "The VIP pass has been great for us but we need to keep our parks as fresh as possible as well." Mr White would not reveal the exact number of park goers but said the figures were slightly less than the year before. "We feel pretty good about the result, given the weather conditions," he said. The same was also true for Village Roadshow's overall earnings before tax from the Gold Coast parks, which dropped $800,000 to $82 million. Village Roadshow is intending to sink another $30 million into its Coast parks this year, with new attractions including the Justice League Alien Invasion ride, which opens at Movie World next month, the Constrictor Water Slide, which opens at Wet'n'Wild next month, and Dinosaur Island, which opened in July. Another attraction is also planned for Sea World later this year but Mr White would not reveal any details. Ardent Leisure spent just $13 million on its three Coast attractions last year by comparison and most of that went on the $10 million Dreamworks precinct for Dreamworld. Ardent Leisure CEO Greg Shaw said the company was happy with how the business was being managed, despite the result. "The thing I am most unhappy with is the rain," he said. "During the peak trading periods we actually traded ahead of expectations when it wasn't raining." The Gold Coast recorded 1249mm of rain for the second half of the financial year, which is up from 696mm from the year before. Mr Shaw said the result for the theme parks improved in July, when it was up 1.7 per cent to $9.8 million. The major attraction Ardent plans to open this year is the Kung Fu Panda thrill ride at Dreamworld. The theme park attendance numbers came out in the same week that Gold Coast Airport released its passenger numbers for July. They showed a 10 per cent jump in numbers -- an indication things could be turning around for tourism.

http://www.goldcoast...t-business.html Thoughts?

[MacPark]

I think this proves that new and exciting rides bring people through the gates, simple as that. Dreamworld have failed to compete with Village Roadshow and the figures show that.

[casey96]

I think this proves that new and exciting rides bring people through the gates, simple as that. Dreamworld have failed to compete with Village Roadshow and the figures show that.

. i don't think so. Dreamworlds profits have gone down but when you look at Village Roadshows the percentage of loss is very similar Edited August 26, 2012 by casey96

[pin142]

The number Ardent focus on for results is the EBITDA which is not a similar percentage loss. Ardent is at -10.4% on last year, Village works out to be around -0.97%. The figures do show investing in the wrong attractions has cost them and it is not the weather at fault. Buzzsaw and fine weather will not combat this drop. If Buzzsaw was to help turn the numbers around it would have done so already. The very simple fact is Village compared to Ardent are putting in attractions the public are interested in and combined with a VERY solid pass promotion scheme and branding they are getting results they are after. If Ardent want any hope of turning things around it will take more than Kung Fu Panda area and sunny weather they mention in the report to do so. Any hope of bringing back the thrill seekers to the park will require a large investment in a world class signature coaster (think Gatekeeper, The Outlaw, etc.). This is also an area they are lacking compared to Movie World. They have four thrill coasters with at least two they can be proud to have. One other thing I get from the reports is Village are showing more pride in their parks than Ardent. Village lead their report breakdown with their theme park operations whereas Ardent leave it to last.