Income rises at Ardent Leisure

After suffering a fall in first half profits, Ardent Leisure has reported improved financial performance at its theme parks in January.
The company's theme parks, including Dreamworld on Queensland's Gold Coast, struggled to perform in the six months to 31st December, dragging the group's profits down. The disappointing performance pulled Ardent's net profit down to $19.2 million from $22.3 million for the previous corresponding period.
However, Ardent Chief Executive Greg Shaw said the theme parks division had bounced back in January, despite the wetter-than-usual summer weather, stating "the Dreamworld business was up 9% in earnings in January despite the fact that we've had more rainfall than January 2011.
"For us to see such a strong bounceback in our biggest business is quite exciting moving into the second half."
Shaw said a recent deal with Hollywood studio Dreamworks to have life-size versions of some of its popular animation characters appear at Dreamworld would also encourage more visitors to the theme park.
Ardent's other leisure businesses include AMF Bowling Centres, Goodlife Health Clubs, and d'Albora Marinas lifted their earnings in the first half, the theme parks division the only sector that suffered a fall in earnings.
Shaw added "we've very pleased with how our business has performed, very resilient across in all the divisions."
Shaw said softness in the theme park division was off-set by strengths in its US-based Main Event and health clubs business.
Former Sydney BridgeClimb Managing Director Todd Coates was appointed Chief Executive of Ardent's theme parks division in August.