New SEAS CEO (Gus Antorcha) Jumps Ship
- Thread starter Jahrules
- Start date
Oops... Already posted... But I'll leave it here unless admins want to delete.
And here's the new leadership team...
www.seaworldinvestors.com
And here's the new leadership team...
SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. Announces Leadership Transition
- Marc Swanson Appointed Interim CEO; Elizabeth Castro Gulacsy Appointed Interim CFO - (NYSE: SEAS), a leading theme park and entertainment company, today announced a leadership transition. Gustavo Antorcha has resigned from his positions of Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of...
Has there ever been a short term for a CEO job in all of the industry that anyone knows of? Cause that was really short! ?
And at the same time the park is handing out $10 bills, quick queues and basically anything else not nailed down. SEAS in in trouble. We used out $60 in busch bucks to buy beers in HOS pilsner souvineer cups....I paid .84 cent each for them. We also used some of the stack of free meal vouchers we were given so our entire night at BGW HOS we spent $5.04 for what should have cost about $149.91.
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From what I've been told SEAS is still having a pretty good quarter and the rewards bucks offers have increased park attendance which means they are doing what SEAS wants them to do which is increase attendance. I don't think that means that SEAS is in trouble. They are being aggressive because they want people to think that they need to buy a membership or fun card over just a single day ticket. If the promos they do lead to more people buying memberships and fun cards and increased attendance then the park will be happy. Especially since this most recent rewards bucks promo is targeted at weekends that historically have low attendance.
@BGWnut I am a prime example. We went this past weekend SIMPLY for the Busch Bucks. Historically, we usually do not attend the first few weeks of HOS. We ended up spending more money because we used the Busch Bucks to get what we wanted and bought more stuff that I would have wanted. Had we not had Busch Bucks, I would have only bought what I wanted and nothing more. I think that is the point of the Busch Bucks, besides attendance. It really in hopes that people will spend well above and beyond the Busch Bucks to generate more revenue on top of that increased attendance. Honestly, it looked like it was working. Merchandise shops were hopping the two days were attended this weekend.
Believe me, the bean counters know almost exactly how much profit they're going to get long before any promotion is launched. A 14oz glass of draft is probably 40¢ wholesale. A 20oz Coke is a 300-600% markup. So, while you think you're getting a huge deal, they're not hurting.
Yep untill you buy 6 souvineer glasses with with beer for .84 cent each..........
Lets say they do 5,000 beers a day. Even if 2,500 of them cost $0.84 each and they made 0% profit, that's still 2,500 of them that they sold at a 300-600% markup.
Where that ends up mattering is if without the promotion they would have done only 2,000 beers in that day at 300-600% markup.
Just because you got 6 like that doesn't mean that everyone in the park that day got the exact same thing. In fact what they hope for is someone doing what I did a few weeks ago. I went in with my pass, brought my mom and her husband. I used my bucks to beers, but they paid for their because they aren't pass holders. Even though they may have sold mine at cost (2); they still sold 4 more at cost that they wouldn't have made if I didn't use my bring a friend (and frankly I wouldn't have gone without the extra benefits that day).
Where that ends up mattering is if without the promotion they would have done only 2,000 beers in that day at 300-600% markup.
Just because you got 6 like that doesn't mean that everyone in the park that day got the exact same thing. In fact what they hope for is someone doing what I did a few weeks ago. I went in with my pass, brought my mom and her husband. I used my bucks to beers, but they paid for their because they aren't pass holders. Even though they may have sold mine at cost (2); they still sold 4 more at cost that they wouldn't have made if I didn't use my bring a friend (and frankly I wouldn't have gone without the extra benefits that day).
I don’t know, I pretty sure most guests have about 7 active memberships and a “stack” of food vouchers.
Meanwhile, at SEAS Central...
CFO: Welp, that’s it, sirs. We’re screwed. Time to pack it all up and close shop. It’s all over!
Board Chair: So the reckoning has finally arrived. What did us in?
CFO: This one guy at the Williamsburg property. He... he broke us. We’re in trouble. Capital-T trouble!
Board Chair: [looks at summary report] NO! How could he have hacked our incentive system so quickly?!! We went over that model thirty times! It was margin positive! How did he do it?
CFO: Six souvenir glasses. At $0.84 apiece. I don’t know how he did it. It’s like he’s some kind of magician. But it’s right here in black and white. And red. So much red... it’s a bloodbath, sir.
Board Chair: GOOD GOD, MAN. SIX!
[hanging silence]
Board Chair: Heads... will... roll. GUS!!! Six!
CEO: Fellas, I’m out.
Last I knew (As of 2016) actual cost 20oz coke with cup and straw was $0.90 and Pepperoni pizza was $2.25 cost to BGW (labor and utilities included). Not sure how they expect to get money with that low of prices, but they probably figure that the average vacationer and person will spend more money if given a little (or huge) discount as an incentive. That's why black friday makes money for companies, even though most places slash their prices.
This month/weekend we each redeemed out $10 Busch Bucks for Sept and also our $10 for that weekend. So thats $60 worth for the three of us. We used them on alcohol with souvineer cups for get out $10 worth yet not overspending on each card. We also had a park entry issue a number of days ago and the team member handed us a literal stack of food and quick queue vouchers. Add to that one meal at the smokehouse they didnt even take the voucher just looked at it and wrote off the meal so we can actually use that one again. My point being giving all this adds up. While I will gladly take it they souldnt be so freely giving vouchers away.
But if you ended up going and spending money on things you normally wouldn't spend money on; they consider it a positive net cash flow.
My industry (golf) is NOTORIOUS for this. Like the dirty secret is, and the end of the day we need a certain dollar amount to break even. Doesn't matter if it comes from 100 golfers or 10 golfers. This one day we offered a deal of 18-holes with a cart, 6 pack of beers, $60 per person. Sounds like a great deal. Until you break it down like this:
Normal 18 hole cart rate is $18. Nine hole cart rate is $9. We rated it down to $9. Carts are mostly (80%) pure profit.
Normal 18 hole rate is $25. Nine hole rate is $15. We prorated it at $15. This is where we had to ensure we had enough people come in to break even on course rates with course spending. Basically double a normal day.
Then the beers. 6 packs were normally $22. We actually bumped up the the rate on those to $36. Higher profit margin for us.
You do save a whole $5 in the deal. But cashflow for the course, we came out $5 ahead in profits.
BGW is applying the exact same strategy here. They are saving you (the consumer) $10 (or more if you stack them); but in the end because of the extra guests it brings in, they are actually ending up ahead in their easiest profit generator (F&B).
Thats just it, we had planned of going to the park and having dinner at the Smokhouse already and having some drinks, but we ended up just using the Busch Bucks and then when we got meal vouchers used them as well. Actually we probably wouldnt have even got a dessert and had refillable cups that would have cost us .99 to refill but since the voucher came with drink and dessert why not? I literally have 6 charges from BGW for .84 cent. Thats all my night at HOS cost.
Yes I think that you are a perfect example of what they are trying to achieve. You came when you normally wouldn't have and spent more than you would have.
I think that you are the outlier more than the rule. Almost every person I saw was spending more than the $10 that they were getting.
Not sure where you got your numbers. My guess would be based on what the break area charges but those numbers are different from a true cost. There a bunch of different accounting areas that are all in different areas. So stuff like Labor and utilities are not included in the cost of goods for an item as they are accounted for separately. So using prices from the break areas are not the same as the cost of goods because they are designed so that over the course of the year the cost to operate is revenue neutral. This includes taking into account any product that gets wasted. Cost of Goods doesn't include waste and the other costs.
I can tell you that as recently as last year a 20 oz cup of Soda was around 30-35¢ depending on the soda. This includes the cup, soda and ice.
They don't. The break areas are actually revenue neutral. I've seen the year end breakdowns in previous years and they are almost spot on. Some years they cost more to run than they bring in and then the next year they make a little money. Bottom line is that they don't make money off the break areas.