General History 1995

January 1995:
A report headed by Jong Jarvis, an assistant professor of communications at Robert Morris College, indicated French cast members were dissatisfied with many of the American working practices. These included exempting the park from established French labour-laws, American managers requiring English to be spoken at all meetings (even if the vast majority of participants were French) and insistence on American standards of dress code and personal grooming. Some of the most offensive requirements have since been relaxed, and workers seem to have accepted Disney values more readily now they are no longer imposed upon them. During 1993, there was a 26% turnover within the park's 8,000 full-time staff, and a further 25% left in 1994. "That's devastating to a business. They're retraining a quarter of their work force just to fill those slots every year," said Jarvis.

January 26 1995:
BURBANK, Calif. (Associated Press,) - Walt Disney Co. on Thursday said earnings grew 31 per cent in its fiscal first quarter. [...] The company's investment in Euro Disney resulted in income of $27.9 million, reflecting a gain of $55 million from the sale of approximately 75 million shares to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

February 1995:
The Shareholder's Annual Report for the fiscal year ending 30 September 1994 is released. Overall attendance for 1994 was confirmed as being 8.8 million, as opposed to 9.8 million in 1993. However, average hotel occupancy was up from 55% to 60% - mainly due to an increase in winter bookings. Total attendance to date has been 28 million (10 million of whom were French, and an estimated 20% being repeat visitors). A brief account of some of the financial information supplied in the Report is given in section 2.2.

March 31st 1995:
An early recovery in Euro Disney's fortunes has been forecast by a top Walt Disney executive. Joe Roth, who heads the company's films division, said there was "a very good chance that by the end of this year it will be break-even".

April 1st 1995:
New lower entrance prices come into force, with an average of around 20% reduction on the previous adult prices, slightly less for child passes.

April 21st 1995:
The half-yearly financial statement from Euro Disney S.C.A. indicates that the company's net deficit was slashed by 77% from FFr 1.06bn to FFr 241m in the six months to March 1995. This is attributed mainly to the temporary removal of management fees & royalties and a reduction in loan repayments, all of which formed part of the refinancing package agreed in June 1994. However, park attendance and park/hotel revenues were up about 7% on the same period last year, with overall turnover rising to FFr 1.68bn. This was before the new price structure came into effect, so expectations are high for the peak summer months and it is hoped that the park could become profitable by next year. However, to stay profitable into 1997 (when interest payments and royalty demands will come back into full force) it is estimated that the annual attendance figures will need to be in the region of 12.5m, as opposed to last year's 8.8m.

April/May (?) 1995:
A travel trade exhibition in Germany votes for the best worldwide theme park. Unsurprisingly, Walt Disney World in Florida wins the poll, but Disneyland Paris achieves an excellent second place - even beating off competition from the original Disneyland in California which came third.

June 1st 1995:
Space Mountain opens. Previewed for Annual Passholders on 20/21 May, everyone seems to agree that this is by far the best roller coaster ride that the Disney Imagineers have yet created. See section 5.13 for more details.

August 1995:
For the first time in its history, Disneyland Paris and the Euro Disney resort complex announce a profit. Figures issued for the 3rd quarter (April-June) reveal a FFr 170m (£ 22m) profit, as compared to a FFr 546m loss during the same period last year. The improvements are attributed to the reduction of entrance prices, financial restructuring, an improvement in theme park and hotel revenues generally, and the opening of Space Mountain.

15th November 1995:
Euro Disney announces it first annual operating profit. Net profit for the year ending 30th September 1995 was FFr 114m (£ 14.84m), as opposed to a loss of FFr 1.80 bn (£ 234m) the previous year. Part of the reason for the turn of fortune was the FFr 112m windfall which was linked to an issue of convertible bonds, along with lenders' leniency and repayment of FFr 6bn of debt. Attendance for the same period was 10.7m, an increase of 21% from last year's 8.8m visitors. Sales for the period increased by 10% from last year, to FFr 4.6bn.

December 1995:
Share prices fell sharply due to panic-selling following the year-end announcements, finishing the year at around £1.50.

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