...with a partial disappointment. While the hard numbers of the unaudited consolidated summary statement of income more or less reflected expectations and forecasts the slower than expected attendance growth is disturbing the positive impression. While the Disneyland Park did meet its forecasts only 2 million guests visited the Walt Disney Studios till the 30th of September, the last day of the fiscal year. The official statement blames the lack of hotel capacity during the high season for this but is fast to point out that the WDS still become the second most visited theme park in France in only 6 months of its exsistence.
Overall the revenues increased 7% to 1076 million Euro, primarily thanks to the additional revenue generated by the second gate as the teme park revenues increased by 10.4 % to 526 million Euro as result of the higher attendance - if the WDS would have met their forecast this increase would have been measurable higher. Still this increase was also reflected in higher results in the merchandise, food and beverage area. Also the Hotel and Disney Village revenues increased 6.5% to 411.7 million Euro. While most of this increase stemmed from the higher occupancy rate at the hotels and increased spending per guest per day, the Village benefited from guests of the WDS having their lunch in the Village restaurants. The revenues from Real Estate Development decreased to 27.3 million Euro as expected.
Before lease and net financial charges this came down to an company income of 175.7 million Euro or 5,1% less than in 2001 due to increased operating costs due to the opening of the WDS which could not be set off due to the lower than expected attendance of the second gate. As the lease rates and net financial charges are growing as agreed upon in the restructuing plans for EuroDisney SCA in the past the income before exceptional items decreased from 37.7 million Euro in 2001 to 4,9 million Euro, so that the net income changed from a positive result of 30.5 million Euro in 2001 to a loss of 33.1 million euro due to exceptional losses mostly due to the one time incurring only costs of 37.2 million Euro for the pre-opening costs of the second gate (as traning, hiring, advertising, media events, ...). On top of that the reimbursement of the Convertible Bond further increased the loss.

Sunday, when the markets were closed were the Walt Disney Company and EuroDisney SCA both had been under growing pressure in the last months, the Walt Disney Company announced in Burbank, California, USA, that "Jay"(=James A.) Rasulo is the new president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide. The 46 years old New Yorker is a married father of three children and was CEO and chairman of EuroDisney SCA since May 2000.
According to the press release the appointment would take immediate effect as Paul Pressler, who currently held that position, had left the company las Thursday to become president and CEO of Gap Inc.. In his new position Jay Rasulo oversees all Disney theme parks and resorts worlwide (regarding Tokyo Disney and the Disneyland Resort Paris only as far as the influence of the Walt Disney Company over the independent operating companies is defined), the Disney Cruise Line, Disney Regional Entertainment, Walt Disney Imagineering and Anaheim Sports Inc., which runs the Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels and the National Hockey League's Mighty Ducks franchises. According to the press release a special emphasize and additional area of responsibility for Jay Rasulo will be the long-term growth and international expansion initiatives of the Walt Disney Company, including Hong Kong Disneyland which is currently under construction.
This appointment is so far the highlight of a career at Disney which began in 1986 when Rasulo joined the Walt Disney Company in the USA in corporate strategic planning, where he led strategy development for all real estate-based businesses, before becoming senior vice president of corporate alliances, organizing the sponsorship activities into a company wide strategic business unit, a position which he kept from 1993 to 1995 when he switched to Disney Regional Entertainment as senior vice president, where he was part of the team behind the development of the succesful ESPN Zone restaurants but also the Club Disney Entertainment Centers which Disney shut down in 1999 because of weak sales. In 1998 he finally arrived at EuroDisney SCA as executive vice president. There had been numerous rumors since earlier this year, in fact showing up as early as during the grand opening of the WDS in March, that Jay Rasulo would like to leave EuroDisney SCA to become the successor of Paul Pressure who was under mounting pressure over attendance problems with the new Disney's Californa Adventure theme park in Anaheim, USA. Still Jay Rassulo was considered only an underdog when Paul Pressler left, not only because his remote geographical position outside the USA but also due to the fact that he was facing problems with the Walt Disney Studios theme park in Paris too which seemed to stay way behind the original attendance forcasts. In the end his international position, his global experience seems to have been one of the biggest asses he could present in his favor. Named as possible successors for Paul Pressler in numerous reports earlier were also Cynthia Harriss, president of the Disneyland Resort Anaheim, Matt Ouimett, chief of the Disney Cruise Line, and Al Weiss Weiss, president of Walt Disney World, who was quoted by the Orlando Sentinel commenting the appointment of Jay Rasulo: "This is great news for our company. I respect Jay's leadership, his business savvy and his commitment to the creation of outstanding guest and cast experiences. We're in very good hands."
The task now laying in front of him is everything but easy, as the theme parks unit is Disney's biggest profit driver, accounting for 40 percent of operating earnings last year, but in the fiscal third quarter ending in June had to report that its revenue fell 5 percent from a year earlier to $1.8 billion, while operating income fell 17 percent to $467 million. But the leadership of the Walt Disney Company seems to fully trust Jay Rassulo as Business Wire cites Michael Eisner, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, saying "Jay has been instrumental in making Disneyland Resort Paris the most popular tourist destination in Europe. His vision and extensive experience in the international arena will be invaluable as we continue to grow the business globally.", and Robert A. Iger, COO and president of the Walt Disney Company, saying "Jay has an exceptional understanding of our brand and the complexities of the parks and resorts business. His talents as a strategic thinker, accomplished leader and effective operator combine to make Jay the perfect person to lead the parks and resorts group".
While EuroDisney SCA did not react or comment the changes so far Jay Rasulo seems to have reacted to his appointment already, as Reuters, Business Wires and the Orlando Sentinel are citing him saying that the appointment is "one of the most exciting challenges of my 17 years with Disney. I'm honored to have this opportunity to lead a fantastic team and look forward to sharing the Disney magic around the world as we continue to grow our parks and resorts business." But he also cautioned too high expectations: "I'm certainly not going to be able to turn around a fundamental world trend. Maybe we tilted the balance a little bit toward seeking efficiencies and cost reductions." A statement which according to the Orlando Sentinel did not stop him from announcing that the division will continue to streamline, while balancing the need to invest in the future. Still he pointed out that "Disney parks and resorts are fixtures of the landscape and they certainly depend on the quality of the execution of the Disney brand. We're not going to compromise on that." If there is one lesson that he learned in Paris that will help him in his new position it should be the one, he mentioned in the interview too: "You're always better off when you listen to the customer and listen to what they want and continue to evolve and adapt your product constantly."
Officially Jay Rasulo still is CEO and chairman of EuroDisney SCA and will continue to guide the company - but only till an international hunt for his successor was successful, as his new position makes it impossible for him to stay in control of the day-to-day-management currently necessary at DLP especially as he will be based in Burbank. California.
(the photo next to the German text shows from the left to the right: Jay Rasulo, Robert A. Iger, Michael Eisner)

Al Lutz broke the news on his latest DIG-update on Mouseplanet, that Howard Pickett, the Senior Vice President Marketing & Sales of the Disneyland Resort Paris has transfered to the Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, USA, where he is the new Senior Vice President Marketing.This transfer, according to the sources of Al Lutz, took effect last Monday, the 16th of September. In his new position he is reporting directly to Disneyland Resort President Cynthia Harriss. His most important assignment is supposed to further promote the "resort" status of the Disneyland Anaheim Resort, a process he was closely involved in Paris too.

First official indications of the guest attendance at the new Walt Disney Studios have appeared in a letter to the members of the Shareholders' Club. The letter, which informs shareholders of a 7.1% increase in revenues of the resort for the first nine months of the fiscal year 2002 (1st of October till June 30th) explains… that resort attendance and occupancy have increased compared to the last year with “hotel occupancy exceeding expectations” but goes on to say that “overall theme park attendance has been below expectations. Current forecast indicate that this trend may continue throughout the summer” and therefore “the company has undertaken new marketing initiatives to increase attendance.”
Although early rumours suggested the park attendance was a little on the light side it's worth remembering that it's not unusual for new Disney theme parks to  experience slow starts before going onto greatness.

On the 26th of March in the third attempt EuroDisney held its Annual General Meeting in the convention center of Disney's Hotel New York. The among fans widely expected announcement of the Tower of Terror attraction of the Walt Disney Studios park was not announced, in fact no new attraction was announced at all. Instead a new contract for a fourth partner hotel in the Val de France hotel quarter was presented (more in the general News&Rumours) - this deal and other land leases to hotel operators and developers are expected to contribute 15 to 20% of the total net profit per year in the future. Therefor an emphasize was also laied onto the expansion of the Val d'Europe shopping area currently consisting of a mall and an outlet village. Here a huge gardening store will be constructed to improve the variety of offers especialy for local residents. EuroDisney also gave first indications towards the performance of the new Walt Disney Studios. Euro Disney Chairman Jay Rasulo told shareholders "What I can say is that the results of the second park that opened one week ago are very encouraging. We are very happy." even so Finance Director Serge Naim according to Reuters reduced the figure of expected guests for the first full year of operation of the new park to a total of 16 to 17 million guests for both parks combined instead of what Reuters called "the 17 million signalled previously".

Shareholders' of Euro Disney SCA originally had expected the Annual General Meeting for early February but the final date now seems to be the 26th of March 2002. According to the statement of the website EuroDisney.com the meeting will take place in the convention center of Disney's Hotel New York at 9.30 am. So far no written statement has been mailed to the registered shareholders' even so this is now the third officially announced date. No word also on the cause for the surprising delay.

For a second time EuroDisney SCA, the operating company of the Disneyland Resort Paris, cancled the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Originally scheduled to take place on the 19th of February it was moved to the 25th (just two days after the Shareholders' Club Preview of the new theme park). Special hotel discounts had already been released and shareholders informed that the meeting would take place inside the Soundstage 2 in the Walt Disney Studios, normally the location of the "Cinemagique" attraction, when late last week the Shareholders' Club officially confirmed in a letter to all its members that the meeting had been postponed once more, this time to a not yet known date.
Rumors sprung up all over the net as the statement carefully omitted to name any culprit or cause for the new delay - but reports are coming in that a large british daily run an article which basically said that Euro Disney SCA wants to postpone the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders till it is able to officially announce that it is bringing a night time special effects spectacular to the Walt Disney Studios on short notice - Fantasmic, which had been rumored as a possible phase II attractions for the WDS!

EuroDisney SCA, the operating company of the Disneyland Resort Paris, today released the official numbers for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2002. In the period from the 1st of October till the 31st of December 2001 EuroDisney SCA improved its overall revenues by 1.8% to 225.8 million Euro compared 221.7 million Euro in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2001.
While the theme park attendance remained stable the hotel occupancy decreased slightly - still revenues from the Disney Village, the hotels and the theme park were able to increase moderately due to a slightly higher average spending per guest. On top of that the real estate development increased by 1.8 million Euro compared to the same period in the fiscal year 2001.

While most shareholders are counting down the days the preview of the Walt Disney Studios there is another shareholders' event, which is approaching almost unnoticed: The Disneyland Paris Annual General Meeting of shareholders.
Originally it was planned for the 19th of February, meaning shareholders who wanted to combine the preview and the AGM needed to organise a stay of at least 5 days. However EuroDisney SCA has just announced that the date for the AGM has been rescheduled to the 25th of February making it possible for shareholders to now attend both the preview (on the 23rd) and the AGM (on the 25th) with a stay of just 3 days. The reason for this change is unknown but confirmed by Disneyland Paris. Guests who have planned to attend the AGM are advised to contact Disneyland Paris or the Shareholders' Club for further information.
But please note: while the Disneyland Paris AGM is rescheduled from 19th to 25th February, the Walt Disney Studios Shareholders' Club Preview is still taking place on the 23rd February.