Great American Family Parks Reports Preliminary Record Month for Wholly Owned Amusement Park, Wild Animal Safari
19 Septembre 2006 - 1:30PM
PR Newswire (US)
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great American
Family Parks, Inc. (OTC:GFAM) (BULLETIN BOARD: GFAM) , a company
focused on buying and managing profitable theme parks and themed
amusement attractions, announced today that Wild Animal Safari, the
Company's wholly owned 200-acre park containing more than 1,800
exotic free-roaming animals in Pine Mountain, Georgia, reported
record preliminary financial results for the month of August 2006.
Gross receipts generated in the month of August 2006 by Wild Animal
Safari were approximately $245,000 as compared to approximately
$157,000 in the month of August 2005, an increase of approximately
56%. EBITDA grew to approximately $60,000 in August 2006 as
compared to approximately $30,000 in August 2005, an increase of
approximately 100%. EBITDA as a percentage of gross receipts
increased from approximately 19% to 25% during the year over year
period. Although the year over year periods contained a varying
number of business days, average daily increases in both gross
receipts and EBITDA for the month of August 2006 as compared to
daily increases in gross receipts and EBITDA for the year earlier
period, were up approximately 25% and 60% respectively. Great
American Family Parks acquired Wild Animal Safari in May 2005 and
opened additional revenue generating facilities including Noble
Roman's Pizza and Tuscano's Italian Style Subs concession
franchises in mid-July 2005. The Company stated that August is the
first complete month for which financial results could be
comparable for a similar period of the prior year. Dr. Larry
Eastland, Chief Executive Officer of Great American Family Parks,
stated, "We are duly impressed with Wild Animal Safari's very
strong month in August. Since acquiring the park in May 2005, Great
American Family Parks has been working diligently to improve the
park's facilities including concessions, gift shops and through
other measures that have streamlined operations. I believe we are
succeeding in our two-pronged goal of providing visitors with one
of the best family safari experiences available in America, and
delivering continuously improved financial results for our
shareholders." Dr. Eastland continued, "We attribute the park's
success in August to many factors including our previously
announced advertising campaign in the Atlanta market and growth in
regional tourism. It is GFAM's belief that increased fuel costs
over the summer, which may have made long distance summer vacations
costly, also may have made Wild Animal Safari a more attractive
vacation alternative to tourists and residents in the area. We
believe that Wild Animal Safari is a unique regional park, and
August's financial performance illustrates the results of our
business plan in action. We plan to continue to build on this
success with even more improvements to the park's acreage and an
increase in our entertainment offerings by moving forward with our
planned expansion into the additional 300 acres we already own
around the park and through continued marketing efforts." EBITDA as
a % Gross Total of Gross Year Receipts EBITDA Days Receipts August
2005 $157,000 $30,000 28 19% Average per day $5,607 $1,071 August
2006 $245,000 $60,000 35 25% Average per day $7,000 $1,714 Average
increase per day $1,393 $643 Average % increase 25% 60% (a) EBITDA
is defined as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization and cumulative effect of changes in accounting
principle. Although EBITDA is not a measure of performance or
liquidity calculated in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles (GAAP), the Company believes the use of the
non-GAAP financial measure EBITDA enhances an overall understanding
of the Company's past financial performance as well as providing
useful information to the investor because of its historical use by
the Company as both a performance measure and measure of liquidity,
and the use of EBITDA by virtually all companies in the restaurant
sector as a measure of both performance and liquidity. However,
investors should not consider this measure in isolation or as a
substitute for net income, operating income, cash flows from
operating activities or any other measure for determining the
Company's operating performance or liquidity that is calculated in
accordance with GAAP, it may not necessarily be comparable to
similarly titled Measures employed by other companies. A
reconciliation of EBITDA to the most comparable GAAP financial
measure, net income, is included above. About Great American Family
Parks: Great American Family Parks is focused on buying and
managing profitable regional theme parks and themed amusement
attractions in the United States. By building a family of parks,
GFAM is in the process of developing a series of compatible, yet
distinct entertainment and amusement products, including themed
amusement parks, associated products, food and beverage, and
multimedia offerings. For more information on the Company, visit
http://www.weloveparks.com/ . Safe Harbor Statement Under The
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements in
the press release that relate to the company's expectations with
regard to the future impact on the company's results from new
products in development are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The results anticipated by any or all of these forward-looking
statements may not occur. DATASOURCE: Great American Family Parks,
Inc. CONTACT: Ashley Hull, +1-208-342-8888, or ; or investors,
Bethany R. Tomich of Equity Performance Group, +1-617-723-1465, or
, or http://www.equityperformancegroup.com/ , both for Great
American Family Parks Web site: http://www.weloveparks.com/
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