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Joel Manby has navigated some rough waters as SeaWorld Entertainment’s CEO.
But he said he’s confident that the embattled Orlando-based theme-park company’s worst days have passed.
“We have definitely stabilized,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “Now the question is, can we show the growth this year? All the trends are showing improvement in our SeaWorld parks.”
Manby, who joined SeaWorld in April 2015, spent much of his first year consumed with the intense controversy surrounding his company’s signature killer whales. Deciding the problem would only worsen in the future, Manby and SeaWorld’s board agreed to bring an eventual end to the orca program by no longer breeding the whales.
Since announcing its killer whale phaseout in March 2016, though, SeaWorld continues to battle slumping attendance. The company has blamed the decline on factors including an overall drop in Brazilian visitors. SeaWorld reported yet another disappointing quarter Tuesday, while assuring analysts its double-digit attendance decrease was an anomaly caused largely by a shift in spring break timing.
The stock market has been forgiving this week. This summer, however, will be a crucial litmus test.
SeaWorld San Diego will open its new natural orca encounter, replacing the theatrical killer-whale performances the company is ending.
SeaWorld Orlando will debut a virtual-reality version of its Kraken roller coaster and a new nighttime show featuring bioluminescent lighting.
The new attractions come while nearby theme parks Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando open an Avatar-themed land and a new water park, respectively.
“This is the year when they need to show progress and that they are executing on their plans and their plans make sense,” Pacific Asset Management analyst Bob Boyd said.
SeaWorld seems to be “doing the right things,” Boyd said. “It’s definitely the most bullish I’ve been on the company in many years.”
But management has shown similar optimism before that has turned out to be misguided, Wedbush analyst James Hardiman wrote in a research note Wednesday, “so we are taking a wait-andsee approach.”
SeaWorld has adopted many regional park strategies, including the use of virtual reality and other modestly priced attractions. The company is also shifting away from animals as entertainers, instead focusing more on conservation and rescue efforts.
“It would be such a great thing five years from now that people say when they think of SeaWorld, they think of the leading ocean-health and animal-welfare organization out there,” Manby said. “There’s nobody else on earth that spends $10 [million] to $15 million a year on animal rescue.”
That figure — spent on rescuing animals in the wild and rehabilitating them — is not being reduced despite the company’s aggressive costcutting efforts, Manby said.
“It’s one of the areas that’s not under review for costs. We have to pick our spots, but that’s not one of them.”
General animal-care operations, however, did feel the effects of a company-wide elimination of 320 positions in December. Previously, “the zoological community in our company was never, ever part of any cost-efficiency effort for the whole time the company’s been in existence,” Manby said.
“I think in fairness to everybody in the company, if we’re tightening the belt a little bit, everyone has to play a part in that,” he said. “Otherwise it’s like, ‘Well, this special group never has to make any difficult decisions.’”
Zoological executives reviewed the cuts to make sure they wouldn’t compromise care of animals in captivity, Manby said.
Despite the turbulence SeaWorld has experienced, “in my opinion, morale has improved a lot in the last kind of six months,” Manby said. “I think it’s because they sense that the worst is over.”
One big change for the company: On Monday, major investor Blackstone Group finalized the sale of its 21-percent stake to the Chinese Zhonghong Zhuoye Group Co. Ltd. Two Zhonghong executives will join SeaWorld’s board, while a Blackstone executive is resigning. Another Blackstone executive left last year.
Manby said he “absolutely” still has the confidence of the company’s board of directors despite the lingering revenue and attendance declines. “I love the diversity of our board. I feel the best I’ve felt about where we are than I ever have.”
Manby also has a new ally: the Humane Society of the United States, a one-time SeaWorld foe that began collaborating with the company once it abandoned orca breeding.
“I think … they need to make haste and show that they’re an animal-welfare centered company,” Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle said. “I think that’s going to be a long-term solution.”
The partnership has upset a group of diehard SeaWorld fans who feel the company caved to animal activists by ending orca breeding. Many were “very disappointed, hurt and really, honestly stabbed in the back,” said Chris Schuck, who once wrote pieces for a SeaWorld-funded blog called Awesome Ocean.
“I know so many pass members who gave up their passes because of the decision,” Schuck said. “To try to gain a few people, you’ve lost a lot, too.”
Passholder attendance for SeaWorld Orlando declined by 18 percent in the first half of 2016, though the company reports an uptick in pass sales since then.
“Any time you make a decision this big, you’re not going to please everybody,” Manby said.
In general, “I’m very excited about where we’re headed,” he said. “I didn’t get there as fast as I wanted.”