Cedar Fair revenue, attendance and per cap spending up for year so far

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

[Ed. note: The following is an excerpt of a press release. -J]

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and active entertainment, today provided an update on year-to-date results as well as progress toward its strategic goals during an investor presentation held at Cedar Point, the Company's flagship amusement park.

"We are pleased with our strong early season revenue trends," said Matt Ouimet, Cedar Fair's president and chief executive officer. "We continue to drive unitholder growth by delivering a high quality experience for all of our guests, ensuring that a visit to any of our parks delivers great entertainment value. For millions of people the best day of the summer is spent creating lifelong memories in one of our eleven Cedar Fair parks."

Ouimet stated that early season attendance and revenue trends were positive through this past Sunday, June 23, 2013. Net revenues were up 5% when compared with this same time last year. The strong revenues are a result of an increase in both average in-park guest per capita spending and attendance, up 4% and 1%, respectively. Out-of-park revenues during this same period were also up 5%.

"As we enter into the peak summer season, we are once again seeing the positive impact of our on-going investment in the guest experience at all of our parks," added Ouimet. "Based on our 2013 performance to date, we reaffirm our 2013 guidance for net revenue in the range of $1.090 billion to $1.115 billion and Adjusted EBITDA to be between $400 million to $410 million. We also remain well on track to achieve our targeted Adjusted EBITDA of at least $450 million by 2016. Our continued success is driven by our strong management team and dedicated employees, our well-known regional brands and the high-quality of our assets."

Brian Witherow, executive vice president and chief financial officer, noted that the period through June 23, 2013, represents approximately one-third of expected full-year net revenues. "As a result of our marketing efforts and the solid execution of our plan, season pass sales have increased approximately 20% when compared with this time last year," he said. "We are also pleased with the growth we are seeing in revenue per capita which is strong evidence of the traction in our pricing strategy as well as an indicator of the great value our guests see in our product."

Ouimet concluded the event by stating, "We have our strategy in place and are pleased with the response from our guests. Our Board remains strongly committed to delivering a quality distribution to our unitholders along with the creation of additional value through responsibly-paced growth initiatives."

Read the entire press release from Cedar Fair.