Compagnie des Alpes have announced their annual results.
The group, which has a business split between ski resorts and leisure parks, reported static sales and declining profits.
Leisure Parks
CDA's leisure park portfolio includes the Walibi and Aqualibi brands, Park Asterix, Futuroscope and Grevin. Leisure parks were badly affected by poor weather and a sluggish economy:
- Sales down 5.1% to €281 million.
- EBITDA fell €8 million to €33.3 million.
- Margin stood at 11.9%.
- €20.3 million provision for impairment losses.
Strategic Shift for 2013/14 Onwards
CDA report that parks where satisfaction scores were at 4.5 or above on a 5 point scale gained market share despite poor market conditions. As a result CDA have declared a strategic shift to focus on those parks that would “make Very High Satisfaction profitable” with a three point plan:
Optimization of the existing portfolio through “rigorous cost control, improved marketing and reasonable portfolio arbitrage”;- Striving for excellence “by systematically seeking Very High Satisfaction through immediate actions that do not affect CapEx (managing complaints and reception) and through targeted investment in parks with significant potential”; and
- Continuing to develop abroad with “indoor concepts that can be industrialized such as Grévin or consulting initiatives such as Sindibad”.
Five Year Targets
Historical businesses have been tasked with achieving EBITDA of 23% (excluding Futuroscope) and operational ROCE greater than 8% in the next five years.
CDA report an enthusiastic reception at Futuroscope for the new attraction "Lapins Cretin" (Raving Rabbids) based on the popular video game.
Chairman and CEO, Dominique Marcel, said, “The Group has weathered the current economic environment, a testament to the strength of our fundamentals. Nevertheless, we cannot content ourselves with the results achieved this year. In the last three years, we have already taken a number of steps to streamline the Group, and are now poised to reach a new milestone in Leisure parks by refocusing on sites that can capitalize on Very High Satisfaction. This new phase will allow us to generate the results that our shareholders rightly expect.”
