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spk09: Hello, and welcome to the SeaWorld Parks Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, today's event is being recorded. I now would like to turn the conference over to your host today, Matthew Stroud. Mr. Stroud, please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to SeaWorld's fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our investor relations website at www.seaworldinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Mark Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Forrester, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 financial results, and then we will open the call to your questions. Also, we have posted a short slide presentation on our investor website, along with our earnings press release, that we will discuss during our prepared remarks. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors may be updated from time to time, and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward-looking statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release available on our website and can also be found in our filings with the SEC. Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Swanson. Mark?
spk08: Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report our seventh consecutive quarter of record financial results. In the fourth quarter, we delivered record revenue, our second highest net income, and record adjusted EBITDA. For fiscal 2022, we delivered record revenue, record net income, and record adjusted EBITDA. Results for the fourth quarter versus the prior year would have been even better if it weren't for significant adverse weather impacts in most of our markets during the November and December holiday period and the negative impact of Hurricane Ian in October and Hurricane Nicole in November. We estimate that these combined weather-related impacts reduce attendance by approximately 249,000 guest visits during the quarter. We continue to drive growth in total per caps, including during our Halloween and Christmas events during the quarter, demonstrating the effectiveness of our revenue strategies, our pricing power, and the strength of consumer spending in our parks. I want to thank our ambassadors for their continued dedication, efforts, and contributions, without which these strong results would not have been possible. As I've said before, we have a strong and resilient business model, and we believe that we have significant opportunities to continue to improve and meaningfully grow our revenue and profitability. Our attendance levels for fiscal 2022 were below levels achieved in 2019, primarily due to a decline in both international and group-related attendance, which we expect will eventually recover to and surpass pre-COVID levels. Also, as we have discussed, we are still more than 3 million visitors below our historical high attendance of approximately 25 million guests achieved in 2008. This represents a clear opportunity to recapture lost attendance we once achieved. Furthermore, our pricing power strategies investments, and opportunities around revenue management, in-park food and beverage, retail, and other in-park guest spending give us confidence in our ability to continue to grow total per caps. These factors, along with the work we are doing to better manage and reduce costs, combined with the significant investments we are making across our parks and business, give us high confidence in our ability to continue to deliver operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. We are pleased with the start to 2023, and looking forward, we are very excited about our plans with an exceptional lineup of new rides, attractions, events, and new and improved in-park venues and offerings. Given the investments that we have made and will be making, the continued success of our strategies, and our strong financial position, we expect to continue We continue to expect meaningful growth and new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA for 2023. For 2023, we have an outstanding lineup of new rides, attractions, and events, and new and improved in-park venues and offerings with something new and meaningful in each of our parks. Our new rides and attractions include the following. Pipeline, the surf coaster at SeaWorld Orlando, the first of its kind surf coaster with seats in a surfing position that rise and fall to mimic the sensation of riding a wave. The coaster will accelerate riders to 60 miles per hour through five airtime moments and an innovative wave curl inversion. Arctic Rescue at SeaWorld San Diego. The fastest and longest straddle coaster on the West Coast takes riders through three launches at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. Catapult Falls at SeaWorld San Antonio. The world's first launched flume coaster features the world's steepest flume drop. North America's only flume with a vertical lift and the tallest flume drop in Texas. Dark Coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The first all-indoor straddle coaster in North America. Riders experience four launches at speeds up to 36 miles per hour through over 2,400 feet of track. Serengeti Flyer at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, the world's tallest and fastest screaming swing, will take riders up 135 feet at speeds reaching 68 miles per hour. Terese Kid's Cove at Aquatico Orlando. This all-new water play area will feature watering palms, tipping buckets, spraying jets, water bottles, and more. Plus, kids can grab a tube and slide into fun on the all-new kid-size wave slide. Shakalaka Shores at Adventure Island, the new splash and play zone located in the heart of Adventure Island, will feature an area with over 25 spray elements and a central kid-friendly play structure bound to entertain and engage even the youngest of guests. Riptide Race at Water Country USA, the first dueling pipeline slide in Virginia that will send riders through over 500 feet of slide, all while navigating high-speed tunnels and tight turns alongside their opponents. Bert and Ernie's Splashy Shores at Sesame Place, Philadelphia, a water play area featuring water umbrellas, tipping buckets, spraying jets, water bubbles, and a spraying water tower. And finally, the Counts Splash Castle at Sesame Place, San Diego, an enhanced water play area and expanded play structure which features three tipping buckets, four water slides, and over 100 other water play elements. As we have done in previous quarters, we have posted a short presentation on our investor website along with our earnings press release that provides a summary illustration of our earnings potential and some updates on our cost initiatives. Slide number four is titled SeaWorld Illustrative Adjusted EBITDA. This presentation is not meant to be guidance. It is just meant as a simple illustration to show what we believe the earnings power of this business would be at 2019 attendance levels and if we return to the 2008 historical peak attendance levels while growing our total per capita revenue along with the cost savings opportunities we have identified. Importantly, this analysis does not reflect the impact of cost inflation or pressure on the business over time. To be clear again, this is not guidance and we are not projecting when we will again achieve our 2019 attendance levels or our 2008 peak attendance levels, or the total per cap growth and cost savings noted on the slide. This is just an illustration of the earnings potential of this business under these scenarios. As you can see from this illustration, this business has the potential to do between $964 million and $1,156,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA under these scenarios, excluding cost, inflation, or pressure. Slide 5 shows our latest 2022 attendance of approximately 22 million visitors and the potential for where our attendance can go by returning to historical levels. As we have discussed, and you can see, we are still below 2019 levels and we are well below 2008 peak attendance. We also show what our attendance would be if we achieved peak attendance at all of our parks in the same year. As we have said, we have significant potential to achieve meaningfully higher attendance by getting back to historical levels. Slide six shows the multiple opportunities we see to grow total revenue per capita. The opportunities include growing group and international demand, continued revenue management optimization, investments in new and improved venues, continued rollout and improvement of our mobile app, among other things. We also see future opportunities to grow total revenue per cap from our growth initiatives. Slide seven of the presentation presents an update in more detail about our cost efficiency and reduction initiatives that we shared last quarter. As we highlighted, we have enhanced our efforts around these initiatives and we have teams dedicated to realize these and additional opportunities. As we highlighted last quarter, this is just a select list It does not necessarily reflect everything we are working on or will work on over the coming months and quarters. Again, this is not guidance and we are not projecting when we will achieve our 2019 attendance levels or 2008 attendance levels or the total per cap growth and cost savings noted on the slide or when we will achieve this level of adjusted EBITDA. This analysis does not include or estimate the impact of any cost inflation and it assumes the attendance and park mix of 2022. It is simply meant to show the potential adjusted EBITDA we could achieve with the growth in attendance, the revenue per capita improvements, and the cost reductions that we have identified. Before moving to Jim and his update on financial performance, let me comment on a few more items in greater detail. First, let me speak to our balance sheet, which continues to be strong. Our fiscal 2022 year-end net total leverage ratio is 2.78 times, and we had approximately $451 million of total available liquidity, including over $79 million of cash on the balance sheet. This strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. In the fourth quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.4 million shares of common stock at a total cost of approximately $70.6 million. In 2022, we repurchased 12.4 million shares of common stocks, or approximately 16% of total shares outstanding, at a total cost of approximately $693.6 million. We also continue to benefit from the rollout of our mobile app, which is used by an increasing number of guests in our parks and has been downloaded more than 4.5 million times. As of the end of January, mobile ordering has been expanded to additional restaurants and is now operating at over 50% of our target restaurants. We are very excited about the potential of the app and its ability to improve the in-park guest experience, drive increases in revenue, and decreases in cost. Let me spend a few minutes talking about our inorganic growth plans. On the international front, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is due to open later this year. In advance of the official opening of the SeaWorld Park, the UAE's first dedicated marine Research, Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Return Center was recently opened, which I will discuss more later in my remarks. SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is a custom-built 183,000 square meters facility that will feature over 68,000 marine animals, the world's largest aquarium, and six different realms that showcase the complexity, interconductivity, and beauty of life under the sea. We're very proud of this project and along with our partners in Abu Dhabi are excited about introducing a new region of the world to the wonders of SeaWorld and introducing a next generation SeaWorld Park, the first new SeaWorld Park in 34 years. We continue to progress discussions related to other international opportunities and expect to have more to share in coming quarters. On the Sesame Street Park front, we continue our work towards opening our third Sesame Place Park and we will update you on more specifics when possible. On the hotel front, we continue to make progress with our plans to build hotels and complement our park offerings. Based on current plans and expectations, we expect to have our first hotel opened in 2025 followed by our second hotel in 2026. We are working on design and planning for these two hotels and onsite selection for additional hotels across our park portfolio. We look forward to sharing more specifics in future quarters. Before I turn the call over to Jim, I want to take a few minutes to discuss our recently announced organizational changes and related new positions. We've promoted Shell Adams, our former CFO, to the role of Chief Transformation Officer, where she will be responsible for streamlining and reengineering organizational processes, implementing high-value initiatives, and overseeing our business development and growth activities. We also promoted Kyle Miller, our former Orlando Parks President, and Byron Surrett, our former Texas Parks President, to the roles of Co-Chief Parks Operations Officers, where each will be responsible for the operations of specific regions of the country. Kyle will oversee the Florida parks and Byron will oversee the non-Florida parks. In these new roles, they will be responsible for operational activities across our parks, including driving strong and consistent operating standards across our parks, improving profitability, planning, park quality, and guest experience. Together, Kyle and Byron have approximately 75 years of park operating experience with the company. Our team and our stakeholders will really benefit from having these two outstanding individuals in these roles. I cannot be more excited. Overall, we are proud to report record net income for fiscal 2022 of $291.2 million and record adjusted EBITDA of $728.2 million which was achieved with attendance of 21.9 million guests, which, as I mentioned, is still below our 2019 attendance and well below our historical high of over 25 million guests we achieved in 2008. I want to thank our ambassadors for their hard work this past quarter and fiscal year. Without their continued dedication and efforts, these strong results would not have been possible. With that, I'm happy to introduce you all to Jim Forrester, our interim CFO, to discuss our financial results in more detail. Jim has an impressive background, including over two decades of experience in the theme park space, and most recently, leading finance operations for our Orlando parks, which as you know, are among our strongest performing and largest parks. We are very fortunate to have Jim on our team. Jim?
spk04: Thank you, Bart, and good morning, everyone. It is somehow fitting that someone with a naval background and who as a child marveled at the wonders of the animal world on Sunday night television will lead the finance organization for this amazing company. Thank you, Mark, our board and my team for giving me this opportunity. As Mark mentioned, our results of operations for fiscal 2022 and 2021 continue to be impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, as shown in part by the decline in both international and group-related attendance as compared to pre-COVID levels. Fiscal 2021 was also impacted by capacity limitations, modified and or limited operations, and or a temporary park closure, decreased demand due to public concerns and government restrictions associated with the pandemic, and more severe restrictions on international travel. During the fourth quarter, we generated record total revenue of $390.5 million, an increase of $19.7 million or 5.3% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase in revenue is due to an increase in total revenue per capita of 5.7%, partially offset by a decrease in attendance of 0.3%. Attendance was unfavorably impacted by adverse weather during the quarter and benefited from an increase in international guests when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, which was impacted by more severe COVID-19-related restrictions on international travel. As Mark mentioned, we had several weather-related impacts during adverse weather during the November and December holiday periods and Hurricane Ian in early October and Hurricane Nicole in November. We estimate that combined, these adverse weather impacts contributed to a decline of approximately 249,000 guests during the quarter. We also continue to experience lingering effects of the pandemic with international visitations still not back to pre-COVID levels. In the fourth quarter, international visitation was still down 37% compared to the same quarter in 2019. For fiscal 2022, international visitation was down 49% compared to 2019, while group visitation was down 16% compared to 2019. Our pricing and product strategies continue to drive higher realized pricing resulting in record total revenue per capita in the quarter of $79.10 compared to $74.87 in the fourth quarter of 2021. This increase was driven by improvements in both admission per capita and in-part per capita spending. Admission per capita increased by 4.5% to a record $45.63, and in-part per capita spending increased by 7.2% to a record $33.47 in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase in admission per capita was primarily due to the realization of higher prices in our admissions products resulting from our strategic pricing efforts when compared to the prior year quarter. In-park per capita spending improved due to a combination of factors including pricing initiatives, improved product quality and mix, and the impact of new, enhanced, or expanded in-park offerings partially offset by the negative impact of less than optimal staffing. Operating expenses increased $14.1 million or 8.7% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The increase in operating expenses is probably due to increased labor-related and other operating costs driven by increased operating days and expanded and or enhanced events, along with unusually high inflationary pressures Partially offset by structural cost savings initiatives when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Operating expenses as percent of revenue were 45.2% for the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to 43.7% for the fourth quarter of 2021. While staffing has improved from earlier in the year, we are still not yet at optimal levels. We continue to suffer from less than optimal staffing in various roles across our parks during the quarter, which among other things, impacted our ability to fully capture in-park revenue. Labor costs in the fourth quarter were primarily driven by increased labor hours as our average hourly wage rate was only moderately higher than prior year. Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased $11.8 million, or 20.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The decrease is primarily due to the decrease in non-cash equity compensation expense and the impact of cost savings and efficiency initiatives. Selling general and administrative expenses as a percent of revenue was 11.5% for the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to 15.3% for the fourth quarter of 2021. We believe that approximately $10 to $15 million of costs in the fourth quarter compared to 2019 are temporary, unusual inflation-driven costs that we expect to moderate in the coming quarters. We generated net income of $49 million for the fourth quarter, the second highest ever for the fourth quarter, compared to a net income of $71.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, which included a favorable tax benefit. And we generated record adjusted EBITDA of $153.7 million, an increase of $0.9 million when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. The improvement in adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2022 was primarily driven by an increase in total revenue per capita, partially offset by an increase in expenses when compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Looking at our results for the full year, which were still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, total attendance was approximately 21.9 million guests, an increase of 8.6% versus 2021. Total revenue was a record $1.73 billion, an increase of $227.5 million or 15.1% when compared to 2021. Fiscal 2022 total revenue per capita was a record $78.91 compared to $74.43 in 2021, a 6.0% increase driven by an increase in admissions per capita and in part per capita spending. Admission per capita increased 4.3% to a record $44.00 compared to $42.17 in 2021. Admission per capita increased primarily due to the realization of higher prices in our admissions products, resulting from our strategic pricing efforts, which was partially offset by the net impact of the admissions product mix when compared to 2021. In part, per capita spending improved by 8.2% to a record $34.91 from $32.26 in 2021. The increase was primarily due to a combination of factors, including pricing initiatives, improved product quality and mix, and the impact of new, enhanced, or expanded in-park offerings when compared to 2021. In-park per capita spending was also unfavorably impacted by less than optimal staffing during certain times of the year, which impacted our ability to fully operate and or open some of our food and beverage and retail outlets. Operating expenses increased by $113.3 million, or 18.2% when compared to 2021, primarily from an increase in labor-related costs and other operating costs due to a return to more normalized operations and an increase in attendance. Operating expenses were also impacted by inflationary pressures, partially offset by the impact of structural cost savings initiatives when compared to 2021. Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased by $15.2 million, or 8.2% when compared to 2021, primarily due to increased marketing-related costs and increased third-party consulting costs, partially offset by a decrease in non-cash equity compensation expense and the impact of cost savings and efficiency initiatives. Net income for the year was a record $291.2 million, an increase of $34.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA was also a record $728.2 million, an increase of $66.2 million when compared to 2021, which held the previous record in both net income and adjusted EBITDA. Now turning to our balance sheet. Our current deferred revenue balance at the end of the fourth quarter was $169.5 million, an increase of approximately 9.5% when compared to December of 2021, which included the impact of some COVID-19 related product extensions and one-time items. At the end of January 2023, our past phase was up compared to January 2022 and was at a record level for January. We're continuing to realize meaningful price increases on our past products with current past prices up more than 10% compared to prior year. As Mark mentioned, we have a very strong balance sheet position. As of December 31st, 2022, Our total available liquidity was $450.8 million, including $79.2 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet, and $371.6 million available on our revolving credit facility. Cash flow from operations was $95.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. Free cash flow was $45.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. We repurchased approximately 1.4 million shares of common stock at a total cost of approximately $70.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. In fiscal 2022, we repurchased approximately 12.4 million shares of common stock or approximately 16% of our total outstanding shares at a total cost of approximately $693.6 million. We spent $50 million on CapEx in the fourth quarter of 2022 of which approximately $37.2 million was on core CapEx and approximately $12.8 million was on expansion and or return on investment projects. In light of our significant free cash flow generation over the past several months, as we went through our planning process for 2023, we spent considerable time reviewing opportunities to deploy in Crentmo high confidence ROI capital across our parks that would drive increased revenue, decreased costs, and our meaningfully improved guest experience. We identified projects totaling up to $100 million related to enhancing, improving, and are creating new food and beverage outlets and retail venues and upgrading park infrastructure and technology. In 2019 and 2022, we averaged approximately $150 million per year on core CapEx that includes investing meaningfully in new rides, attractions, events, and venues to have something new and compelling in our parks each year. On top of that $150 million per year in core CapEx, we have spent approximately $40 million per year on growth and ROI projects. For 2023, we expect to continue to spend approximately $150 million to $180 million on core CapEx, and we plan to spend between $100 million and $120 million of CapEx on growth and ROI projects that are a direct result of our 2023 planning process. We're already making progress on many of these opportunities and expect to have more specifics to share over the course of the coming year. In total, we now expect to spend approximately $250 million to $300 million in CapEx for 2023. We're excited about our opportunities and the ability to make these high-confidence ROI investments and sincerely look forward to the benefits and returns from these investments flowing through to our financial results. Now, let me turn the call back over to Mark who will share some final thoughts. Mark?
spk08: Thanks, Jim. Well, before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we came to the aid of more than 100 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 40,000 animals, including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. Also in 2022, we partnered with a host of other organizations to expand our care and protection for aquatic life to include integrated support of the Florida Coral Rescue Center and the ongoing rescue work on the Florida Coral Reef. Also, a few weeks ago, SeaWorld's first rescue center outside of the U.S. in Abu Dhabi opened. Yaz SeaWorld Research and Rescue located at Yaz Island in Abu Dhabi, is the first dedicated marine research and rescue center in the Middle East North Africa region and will be a key contributor to marine life conservation in both the UAE and the wider Middle East North Africa region. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. I want to thank them and all our ambassadors for all they do to operate our parks in this current environment. We are certainly excited about 2023. We are on track to open all of our 2023 new rides and attractions in the coming weeks and months. We continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful long-term growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and in our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that we expect will lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.
spk09: Thank you. At this time, we will begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. In consideration of the others, please limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. If you have additional questions, you may re-enter the question queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. And this morning's first question comes from Steve Wisinski with Stifel.
spk05: So first, just kind of a housekeeping question. I want to ask about the impact of the weather in the corridor, which you know, you know, it was around 250,000 visits. And I guess just based on your, your current per cap levels is the right way to think about this was the, you know, that impact was probably somewhere between let's call it seven and $8 million hit, you know, to EBITDA. And then on top of that, just, you know, wondering how you guys are thinking about attendance for this year. And look, I understand you don't give guidance. I'm not going down that path, but I'm just more trying to figure out how you guys are thinking about the return of, that international and group guests and maybe how those forward booking trends have been looking?
spk08: Yeah. Hey, Steve, it's Mark. I can take that question. So look on the weather impact, 249,000 people, as we noted. I can't give you an exact EBITDA estimation. I think, you know, you can do the math on the revenue per cap and you're probably, you know, not terribly far off of of what you said there, maybe a tad higher, but that's certainly, I think, a place to look at. As far as how we think about attendance in 2023, look, we're excited about the rides and attractions and events, things that we've got lined up in our parks. As far as the return of group and international, I mean, as you heard me say, we expect those will return over time. I don't know when that exactly will be. There's still some international travel hurdles, if you will, from certain countries. You know, group attendance, as you, I think as we said, you know, group attendance in Q4 was right there with 2019. It was actually, you know, just barely positive. So that one I think we feel a little bit more optimistic about. And then international, we'll just have to see how how travel opens back up and things like that.
spk05: Okay, gotcha. And the second question would be around the illustrative EBITDA chart in your deck. And look, again, I know you said multiple times this isn't guidance, and I fully appreciate that. But if we look at the potential margins of kind of what you have laid out here, I mean, you've laid out a business that could be doing upper 40s, low 50s type margin. I'm just trying to understand... maybe how we should be thinking about the flow-through of this business moving forward. I mean, look, it seems like your cost structure at this point is somewhat pretty set, and there is opportunities to drive it lower. But I assume from here that flow-through is really going to be pushed more by the pricing and in-park opportunities. Is that kind of the right way to think about it?
spk08: Yeah. What I can tell you is, I mean, there's a couple ways we think about the business is, If we can grow attendance each year a little bit, grow per caps each year a little bit, and then manage our costs, that should lead to adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion. We do have efforts around costs, as we've noted on the illustration and in my comments and in Jim's comments. Certainly, we're not going to stop those efforts. And then we, as you noted, we have efforts around growing our revenue and the different strategies we do there. So I think it'll certainly be some combination of those two that leads us to, you know, what we expect will be growth in the future.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question, Constance James, Hardeman with Citi.
spk06: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. So, I mean, the cost, controls continue to be really impressive. I guess most significantly on the SG&A line, can you just walk us through some of the big buckets that you've been able to bring down, right? Revenue is up a bunch since 2019. SG&A, that SG&A line is down almost 50%. Maybe just walk us through, you know, what's in that, you know, what did you cut and what's left to cut?
spk08: Hey, James. So I can take that question. Look, there's There's some, I think, as Jim said in his remarks, there's some items like stop comp in there as well, which certainly has had an impact for the quarter. But beyond that, you know, we have a number of initiatives around, you know, looking at our spend with vendors and marketing and things like that. So really just across the company, all our efforts around cost are really are not only applied to the parks, but apply to the corporate center as well. And we'll continue to work on that, obviously. And that's something. But there is a little bit of more detail in Jim's remarks as far as some of the non-cash expenses. We're down a little bit, too.
spk06: Okay. And then sort of along those lines, I mean, obviously results have been extremely impressive particularly on the cost front. Normally, you'd say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But you guys did a pretty big management shakeup here. Maybe speak to the rationale behind something this aggressive. And I guess there have been a couple of notes in your filings, the Q and the previous K, about weaknesses and internal controls. Does this address that in any way?
spk08: I think what I would tell you is, as I said in my prepared remarks, we're excited for the different roles that we have, that we've created. Shel's sitting here at the table with me. I can tell you she's certainly excited about the transformation efforts that she's leading. I think obviously it's something with her background that I think she will be very good at and certainly gives her an opportunity to really dive into that more so than previously, obviously. And then with the co-chief parks operations officers, we've put two very experienced leaders in those roles, and they can get out to our parks a lot more often and make sure that we're driving the standards and the efficiencies that we want to see across the company. And I couldn't be more Excited about that, obviously. And, you know, as you heard with Jim's background as our interim CFO, we have someone who brings a lot of park knowledge to the role, which I already see the benefits of having somebody who's run the finance operations at among our biggest parks here in Orlando and, you know, what he brings to the table there. So we're excited about, you know, kind of mobilizing the team and how we're going to move forward.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question comes from Phil Cusick with JP Morgan.
spk02: Hi, guys. Thank you. I wonder if you can talk about CapEx. I think you've gone from about $200 to $250 to $300 million. Can you talk about the timing of ride launches through the year? How do you expect any marketing spend and launch costs to be shaped and anything as you go beyond 23 as well? Thanks very much.
spk08: Hey, Phil. I can take that question. Look, there's, you know, The CapEx spend, and Jim can maybe give you some specific examples here when I'm done sharing, but we talked a lot in his comments about some of the additional efforts we have around some spending in ROI areas, like whether it's new venues, aesthetics, technology enhancements, efficiency efforts, whatever it may be. And really, the reason we can do that, as you can imagine, is is the strong cash flow that we've been generating. So we're putting some of that cash flow to work in the business, and we're excited about those opportunities. You know, I think as far as your question on the ride launches, you know, we just opened the ride down in Tampa. You know, some of the other rides will be coming online here in the coming weeks and months. And, you know, obviously I think some of the spend you would see associated with those would tie to that. I would say in general, we probably opened our rides a little earlier last year. So there may be a little bit of a timing difference of some of those costs just from when we opened those this year. But Jim, why don't you give maybe an example or two of some of the new things we've done with the CapEx?
spk04: Sure. Phil, good to meet you. I'm brushing up on this call. I noticed what you would ask in the third quarter of the year. And so at that time, you would set up about 130 to 140 staples. core and about 40 million or so in ROI. And we have increased since that guidance and since we put that out. And a lot of that addition has been looking at those attractions, not only that we're putting in place for 2023, but the advanced purchase and design for 2024 attractions and beyond. So that increased a little bit since we last spoke. We are doing some additional infrastructure needs around the properties, actually fairly major investment to include Base infrastructure if you will for the physical plant plus enhancements for the guest experience and things like aesthetics Specifically this year you can see a lot of focus on shade and restrooms that core not to be outspoken by the ROI benefit of going up to 120 million range is a lot of food and beverage facility focus so we're going to be taking a look in double-digit opportunities across the properties for to provide new facilities or expand the current facilities, integrate mobile ordering to legacy facilities, and to increase the opportunity to make our business more efficient in those technology advancements.
spk02: Great. Thank you.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question comes from Eric Ward with B Reilly Securities.
spk01: Thank you. Good morning. Two questions, I guess. One, if we look back at the, you know, the illustrative, you know, kind of financial targets you laid out back on the 2020 call, 24-2020 call versus today, you know, the estimated costs went up by about, you know, $160 million to $159 million. Can you give us a sense of how much of that is variable costs associated with kind of higher in part per capita spending and how much is kind of a structural increase in operating costs, kind of net of the cost savings you've implemented.
spk08: Yeah, hey, Eric, I can, you know, again, try to help you out here. I mean, again, keep in mind that the illustration, it's just that. It's an illustration. And if you look at the footnotes, I believe we noted, right, the flow through on this, right? So... You can probably get some sense of what the flow through is on the per cap and attendance growth. Maybe said more simply is we should be able to add attendance to our parks and especially if we're just adding it to a day where we're already open and we're bringing in another thousand people or something, that should not have a meaningful increase in costs for us. Where you would get more structural costs increase would be if we have to open days we weren't open before or build new areas of the park that we didn't have before, that type of thing. But in general, if we're kind of adding to existing days, that flow through is going to be pretty high.
spk01: Got it. Kind of going back to an attendance question that was asked earlier this year, how do you think about the record season passes, what you've done to push that? How do you think about season pass versus daily focus in 23? I guess with an expectation that obviously season pass usage would ramp up and you've got obviously some increases in prices with season passes and I assume similar ones with daily. Can you keep the the emissions per cap moving higher in 23 and all that with that push and pull?
spk08: Yeah, what I would tell you is we obviously believe our past products offer a great value and we've been able to get the higher pricing that you heard Jim talk about in his comments. And when we're able to invest in the business like we've been doing with new rides and attractions and events and refreshed venues, those type of things, that just makes that, I think, that value even more apparent for pass holders. So I'm confident we can continue to drive higher admissions per caps through our pricing, and I think we've demonstrated that over the last several quarters. And, you know, look, there can be a tradeoff, as you noted, between pass and single-day ticket. I mean, really, we're targeting the the total revenue equation overall. But even within that equation, you know, I think we're optimistic we can continue to grow pricing and, you know, ultimately grow per caps.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question comes from Michael Swartz with SunTrust.
spk07: Hey, guys. Just wanted to start off and maybe follow up on CapEx, your CapEx plans. I think you said 250 to 300 for 2023, which is the Maybe that's the highest amount since at least you've been public. But maybe talk about the ROI piece of that, which is, I think, what's being stepped up meaningfully. And I know you're generating a lot more cash now, but is this a structurally higher level of ROI spending going forward, or is this a timing element? And then how do we think about the ROI profile of some of the things you're investing in in 23 and beyond, maybe to prior years?
spk08: Yeah, well, I can start, and then if Jim wants to say anything, he can't. I think we guided you to the core number is going to be in that 150 to 180 range. Again, we're taking advantage of the cash flow generation that we are generating and using that to deploy to other ROI projects in our parks. As you can imagine, we're not going to target ROIs in the single digits or things like that. These are going to be returns that you know, we would feel good about spending the cash on. So, like, I don't know that it's permanent. I mean, in a sense, it'd be permanent if we continue to find more ROI opportunities. You know, we're going to continue to go after them. But, you know, at some point, you probably do reach a point where you've done all you can do or, you know, those things start to slow down a little bit. But I think as long as there's continued opportunities to drive ROI, whether it's refreshed venues, technology enhancements, efficiency efforts, aesthetic reasons, you know, we will pursue those.
spk04: Yeah, the only thing I would add, Mark, is, you know, we started these back in 2020 and 2021 to, you know, do a couple of facilities, saw the improvements that resulted from those in food and beverage, and used those postmortems to realize that we had a lot of opportunity, especially in our food and beverage operations. You'll see also the first 100% guest exit flow at the Sesame Park being installed this year. So we'll learn from that opportunity in the first of our parks and others like it, some efficiency projects to reduce utilities and continue to, again, figure out where we can be more efficient, reduce our labor costs from some of these implementations, and continue to see if this is the right amount going forward to achieve those revenue and cost of savings targets.
spk07: Okay, great. And I think you laid out about $50 million in identified cost savings per that illustrative example. And I think in the past you were talking about $30 to $50 million, if I remember correctly. What's driving that delta? Is that incremental projects? Is that certain things just firming up relative to the prior range that you gave?
spk08: Yeah, hey, I can take that question. I think it's, you know, as we – As we do more work and more time on this and have more people kind of dedicated to these efforts, it's kind of like you said. We're able to, I think, firm up some of these numbers, have a better sense of what's doable. So you're seeing some of that in those numbers, obviously. So we said 30 to 50. We showed you the 50 and obviously have plans. Our goal is to always be identifying additional cost savings, and we have some teams now that can help do that.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question comes from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt.
spk10: Okay. Hi, thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the CapEx outlook. As I understand it, you're looking at a meaningfully higher CapEx spend in 2023 and your CapEx spend in 2022 is already elevated. And a lot of that I thought was going into the Sesame Park opening out in San Diego. So I'm just wondering, since it's already open, can you be a little bit more specific about what's driving the increase in 2023? And is that kind of a peak or does it keep going up into 2024 and beyond as you start building more hotels? And I thought the international was capitalized, but maybe there's some spend there.
spk08: Yeah. Hey, Barton, it's Mark. I can try to help you on that question. Again, I'd reference you back to Jim's comments that we said the core would be 150 to 180. And again, that's going to be your new rides, your attractions, and things like that in the park. And then we said for 2023, the ROI would be 100 to 120 to get us to the 250 to 300. Again, that second bucket, I would not think of that as permanent in nature. It's going to be dependent on what type of ROI opportunities we have. As you noted, if there's other things that we pull in over time, whether it's the timing of hotels, new parks, things like that, they would fall into that bucket. But again, they're going to be dependent on things that we identify and execute on or new opportunities for expansion, things like that. And we'll try to continue to provide some updates at the appropriate time going forward.
spk10: Okay, I mean, you know, just to lean on that a little bit, that would be, I think, the highest CapEx total between essentially maintenance and the expansion, you know, maybe ever as a public company or certainly in many years. So, you know, a big kind of change in your stance on opportunities there to invest. And, you know, are these investments that we would expect to get any sense of return next year, or does this really spend for 23 years? and see the return in later periods.
spk08: Well, a couple of comments. So, I mean, one, I mean, we're also generating. I mean, we're at record adjusted EBITDA. So the cash flow we're generating is allowing us to obviously reinvest in the business. And I think Jim made a really good comment about some of the projects we did in earlier years, refreshes that, you know, only take, you know, months to do, not years to do, and they have an impact in that given year when you refresh a restaurant or a venue or a bar or something like that, we can see that impact more quickly than something that takes multiple years. So I do think there's certainly benefits to 2023 from the CapEx we're spending now. Those things all come online at different times. So the full run rate is not necessarily going to occur this year, but As those things open, we would expect to get the benefit. I think we are just seeing opportunities. We have more people who are kind of uncovering those opportunities, if you will, and we're also clearly generating the cash to be able to pursue those opportunities. So there's a little bit more for you.
spk09: Thank you. And the next question comes from Paul Golding with Macquarie Capital.
spk00: Thanks so much. First I wanted to ask about the suboptimal staffing levels here. You also noted that mobile ordering is at 50% of food venues, I believe. So I just wanted to ask where we may start to see an offset between those two. In other words, what we could expect in terms of staffing up from a labor hours perspective to get to optimal levels to hit those per cap opportunities. versus filling that in with technology and the expenses associated? Thanks.
spk08: Yeah, so, Mark, I can take that. Look, we talked about the mobile app a little bit there in my remarks, and we're at over 50% of the restaurants that we've targeted to have mobile ordering. And we'll continue to hopefully grow that over time. And we know Clearly, like you would see in other companies, there's some benefits to doing that as far as convenience and generally lower costs and things like that. As far as the optimal staffing, I mean, we've called that out because we know at times there's, you know, areas of our parks that we want to have better staffing at and opportunities for more revenue generation from being better staff, you know, primarily in our our food and beverage areas would probably be the area we'd see that the most. So, you know, there's, you know, I think a desire to not only increase the mobile app, but also, you know, make sure for those that aren't using the mobile app, we still have opportunities for them to spend money. I don't know when that exact intersection will occur, but, you know, one of the things we're doing with our labor management is really pretty meaningful project around kind of labor optimization, scheduling, deployment, things like that. And I think those are the type of things we would take into consideration.
spk09: Thank you. And this concludes the question and answer session. And I would like to turn to Florida Mark Swanson for any closing comments.
spk08: Well, thank you, Keith. On behalf of Jim and the rest of the management team at SeaWorld Entertainment, I want to thank you for joining us this morning. As you heard today, we are confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value for stakeholders. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
spk09: Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. We now disconnect your lines.
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