Latest / Best of Business / Geoff McDonald: Skyline Enterprises CEO on the company's net profits more than doubling in the year to March

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Geoff McDonald: Skyline Enterprises CEO on the company's net profits more than doubling in the year to March · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed Be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Skyline Enterprises seen a one hundred and twelve percent jump
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  Speaker 2: of net profits, so that's all good. Revenues up fifteen percent.
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  Speaker 2: QUEENSTOWND looks like it's off and running. Jeff McDonald is
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  Speaker 2: the Skyline Enterprise, as Boss anders with us. Jeff, very
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  Speaker 2: good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Mike.
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  Speaker 2: Now, just to explain, you are in multiple markets around
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  Speaker 2: the world, interesting markets, and we've talked about that before.
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  Speaker 2: Are you seeing growth everywhere as tourism booming? In other words?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, good question. I think most of the eight
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  Speaker 3: markets are and have really picked up, you know, long
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  Speaker 3: since COVID and doing very very well. I think the
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand sites have performed particularly well. In Queenstown probably
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  Speaker 3: the standout.
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  Speaker 2: So what's happened there? Because Tourism Holdings the other day
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  Speaker 2: suddenly came out with an upgrade as well and they said, oh,
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  Speaker 2: look we're seeing all these bookings both domestically and from
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  Speaker 2: North America. So is there some sort of thing going
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  Speaker 2: on with tourism at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think you know, the middle east of it
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  Speaker 3: a factor in terms of where people are thinking about
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  Speaker 3: traveling to from an international perspective. So we've probably had
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  Speaker 3: stronger shoulder seasons than we've seen. You know, the summer
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  Speaker 3: peaks and winter peaks always seem to take care of themselves.
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  Speaker 3: But it's filling those troughs and which has been the difference.
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  Speaker 3: And I think, you know, we are getting definitely more
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  Speaker 3: Americans coming through.
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  Speaker 2: And how much of it it's about the economy and because
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  Speaker 2: losing in gondola or jumping on the gondola is not cheap,
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  Speaker 2: so obviously got to feel reasonably good about life to
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  Speaker 2: you do it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think so, although you know, having said that,
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  Speaker 3: I think going up to queenstun and jumping under gone
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  Speaker 3: that's probably more oriented to the average family than say
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  Speaker 3: taking this guide over or doing a bungee jump or
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  Speaker 3: something like that. So whilst queen sounds increasingly getting a
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  Speaker 3: reputation as an expensive town, I think it still sort
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  Speaker 3: of sits in that middle tier of things that the
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  Speaker 3: family can can get to him to do.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, is there a contrast between Queenstown and Road A
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  Speaker 2: RUA in terms of performance?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely there is, you know it's the international factor
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  Speaker 3: is the big thing for Queenstown of Australia, just across
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  Speaker 3: the ditch and any point in time, that's what forty
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  Speaker 3: percent of the population of Australian here in town, whereas
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  Speaker 3: Rotora is quite a midweek and that's much more of
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  Speaker 3: a domestic sort of destination.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So would it be fair to say then Roda
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  Speaker 2: reflects the domestic economy more than Queenstown does, which is
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  Speaker 2: driven by the international economy.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's absolutely correct.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. What about more broadly, Singapore, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia?
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  Speaker 2: Are they all doing well in that sense roughly at
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  Speaker 2: the same level or are the disparities there.
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  Speaker 3: Singapore has been doing very very well. Mcquhir Long has
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  Speaker 3: been doing okay, and one of the Korean sights has
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  Speaker 3: been doing pretty well. We have one site, the original
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  Speaker 3: site in Creer that is surrounded by a few copy
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  Speaker 3: generic sites that struggled a bit more, but the others
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  Speaker 3: have been doing well. In Singapore in particular is very
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  Speaker 3: very strong though it's a hub asi, you know, Mike.
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  Speaker 3: Lots of international guests going through there, they stop off
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  Speaker 3: one or two days, you know, heading over to Sintos
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  Speaker 3: Island to go. Losing is an easy thing to do,
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  Speaker 3: so has been performing well.
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  Speaker 2: Also, how do you explain or encapsulate verbally what has
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  Speaker 2: happened post COVID to this experiential thing that we all
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  Speaker 2: seem to be on. It doesn't matter what its cost
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  Speaker 2: to get on a plane. We will do it, are
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  Speaker 2: doing it and seemingly will do it forever.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly it. I think, you know, we will
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  Speaker 3: talk about this that COVID taught us that things can change,
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  Speaker 3: and I think there's been a sort of a revenge
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  Speaker 3: or rebound tourism that's gone on at New Zealand's always
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  Speaker 3: been an attractive destination. The other thing that's happened, I think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, is the government has loosened the strings in
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  Speaker 3: terms of visas to Australia for certain nationalities and it's
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  Speaker 3: made it easier for them to come to Australia and
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  Speaker 3: then on to New Zealand. So queens sounds certainly benefited
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  Speaker 3: from that, I would say. I think Queenstown there's a
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  Speaker 3: real concern that we kill the goose that lays of
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  Speaker 3: golden egg there in terms of the volume of people
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  Speaker 3: coming through there and just infrastructure not keeping up.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not there, but I mean, how do you stop
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  Speaker 2: and what do you stand at the gate at the
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  Speaker 2: airport and say, sorry, you can't come in. No one's
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  Speaker 2: doing that, are they.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's it's a challenge and you know, I'm not
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  Speaker 3: sure how long since you've been here. But the problem
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  Speaker 3: we have is obviously roading infrastructure is the big one,
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  Speaker 3: but fast tracking houses on top of it is kind
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  Speaker 3: of compounding the problem. So everyone understands it's a it's
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  Speaker 3: a difficult fix, but then you know there needs to
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  Speaker 3: be some really measured investment in thinking about.
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  Speaker 2: It wise words, Jeff, appreciate the insight and congratulations on
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  Speaker 2: all your success. Jeff McDonald, who is the Skyline Enterprise's CEO.
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