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5/5/2021
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company 2021 First Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host, Mr. Michael Russell, Corporate Director, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Lara. Good morning, and welcome to our 2021 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Earlier this morning, we distributed via wire service our earnings press release, a copy of which is available under the News tab of our investors' website, at ir.cedarfair.com. On the call with me this morning are Richard Zimmerman, Cedar Fair President and CEO, and Brian Witherow, our Executive Vice President and CFO. Before we begin, I need to remind you that comments made during this call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those described in such statements. For a more detailed discussion of these risks, you may refer to the company's filings with the SEC. In compliance with the SEC's regulation FD, this webcast is being made available to the media and the general public, as well as analysts and investors. Because the webcast is open to all constituents and prior notification has been widely and unselectively disseminated, all content on this call will be considered fully disclosed. With that, I would like to introduce our CEO, Richard Zimmerman. Richard.
Thank you, Michael, and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call this morning. We trust that you are well and hope that springtime has brought a sense of renewal and optimism to your businesses, colleagues, families, and friends. On today's earnings call, we will cover two main topics. As usual, we will discuss our quarterly results and near-term financial outlook, as well as update you on park operations. Additionally, we want to start today's call with a discussion of the key components of our business optimization program, which is already well underway. As I mentioned on our last earnings call, we've used the past year as an opportunity to take a step back and reassess nearly every aspect of our company. Something I've been referring to internally is the Great Reset. The pandemic, while enormously challenging to our business, has allowed us to rethink our long-term strategy with the ultimate goal of driving profitable and sustainable growth in our business. The outcome of our efforts was the development of our business optimization program, which was designed to streamline our business processes, realize efficiencies that improve our financial performance, and bring new ways of thinking to how we entertain our guests. Ultimately, The initiatives within the business optimization program will ensure that we can not only meet but exceed the expectation of our guests and associates now and for many years to come. To ensure the success of our optimization efforts and maximize returns, we engaged outside consultants to assist with design and implementation and to provide added bandwidth and a fresh perspective. It's a dynamic process that we expect will evolve over time, but it currently consists of multiple initiatives focused on high-value areas to produce a better guest experience and improve profitability. Implementation of these initiatives will occur over the next six to 12 months, while maximum returns may take two to three years to fully realize. Brian will provide details on the financial implications of our business optimization program in a moment, but for now, let me provide some color on the key aspects of the plan. Strategically, we have broken our efforts into two core components, revenue enhancements and cost efficiencies. On the revenue front, we are focused on continuing much of the work started pre-pandemic to enhance the guest experience and meet changing consumer behaviors and preferences. On the cost front, We are focused on ensuring we are operating as efficiently as possible at both the corporate and park levels, and that we have the appropriate organizational structure in place to maximize results. Looking more closely at the cost side, our efforts can be broken down into three productivity areas. Organizational redesign, reduced non-headcount operating costs, and optimized park level labor. On the org design work, our outside consultants are assisting us with a comprehensive review of organizational structures throughout the company. The main objectives are to identify cost efficiencies, expand our capabilities, and improve our decision making. The first step in the process will be consolidating certain administrative functions and work streams into a more centralized shared service center. This will create operational efficiencies and allow PARCC leadership teams the opportunity to focus on what is most important, delivering the best possible experience to both our guests and our associates. The efforts to expand these shared services centers are underway and will continue over the next 12 months as we take a deliberate but disciplined approach to ensure a smooth and seamless transition. Next, centralized resources will be added to support robust business intelligence and financial planning and analysis functions. with a focus on improving capabilities to help our teams make better data-driven decisions and drive greater returns. The build-out of our business intelligence and FP&A teams is well underway, and I believe both groups will make a meaningful contribution to our performance. The second productivity initiative is the reduction of non-headcount operating costs, which incorporates spending in nearly every aspect of our business. Everything from how much we pay for maintenance materials and office supplies to the contracts we negotiate on major ride purchases is in scope, and the upside is meaningful. Capitalizing fully on this initiative won't happen overnight, but based on what I have seen thus far, it promises to produce meaningful cost savings and systematic improvements. In other words, I am confident that this is a high-return initiative that will create substantial value. We are also focused on reviewing our strategic approach for each key cost area, including big-dollar items like advertising. With our parks reopening shortly, our marketing teams have implemented more cost-efficient and flexible advertising programs for the 2021 season, actions that will result in significant savings without sacrificing the impact and effectiveness of the overall program. The third and final productivity initiative is the optimization of park-level labor. As we have noted, seasonal labor represents close to 30% of our total operating costs and is an area that is seeing significant pressure in both availability and affordability. To address these challenges, several years ago we established a workforce optimization committee tasked with tightening up our labor models. We also began a gradual implementation of a new Kronos-based workforce management solution, which will be operational on opening day at all but our two Schlitterbahn water parks, both of which will be up and running on the new system at the start of the 2022 season. The Kronos platform provides our park teams with better tools for managing their labor force in real time, as well as improved data analytics that will help us better align staffing with guest demand. Optimizing seasonal labor will be even more important going forward as we confront the growing challenges with labor availability. We believe maximizing labor hour efficiencies will be key to offsetting some portion of the pressures we're seeing on seasonal wage rates. Moving to the revenue side, many of the near-term initiatives within our business optimization program can be summed up under one key strategy. providing guests with compelling experiences and conveniences in an evolving consumer landscape. To that end, we are ramping up our efforts around the introduction of new consumer-facing technologies aimed at eliminating pain points for our guests and improving customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher demand for what we offer. Our efforts will feature a continued rollout and use of guest-convenient technologies such as advanced reservation systems, mobile food ordering, expanded online retail, and contactless payment options, including a move by several of our parks to full cashless operations later this year. We have also kicked off a complete strategic review of our park mobile apps with the goal of adding enhanced functionality, better park information, and other general improvements that simplify the park visit and provide more opportunities for our guests to have fun. Over the last several years, we have also seen how optimizing pricing and promotions can drive attendance and admissions revenue growth. And the revenue management team we built to address this has done an outstanding job. The expansion of these resources coupled with advanced business intelligent capabilities will enable us to dynamically price more broadly across the business and drive real revenue growth through increased transaction counts and better pricing decisions throughout the season. While it will take time to fully implement and mature all these initiatives, we are confident they will have a meaningful impact on our operating results. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress over the coming quarters. I'll pause here to allow Brian to review our first quarter results and the impact of our business optimization efforts. Brian?
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