News

Chuck E. Cheese parent sales up for 2019 thus far, down for Q3

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November 7, 2019

Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza parent, CEC Entertainment, Inc. said over the first three quarters of this year its comparable venue sales grew 2.7% over last year, but in the third-quarter alone, comp venues sales dropped 0.9% from last year's quarter and revenues fell to $217.6 million, compared to $220.9 million last year's third quarter. On the year, up to Sept. 29, however, revenues were up from $693.2 million last year to $706.1 this year, according to the financial report. 

Other results included: 
•    $15.3 million Q3 net loss, compared to Q3 2018 net loss of $9.5 million.
•    $0.4 million increase in adjusted EBITDA, to $38.9 million from $38.5 million Q3 2018. 
•    For 9-months, adjusted EBITDA grew $9.1 million, or 6.3%, to $153.4 million from $144.3 million in 2018. 

"Revenue was up for the first nine months of 2019, driven by an increase in comparable venue sales," CEO Tom Leverton, said in the report. "While we had five consecutive quarters of comparable venue sales growth coming into this quarter, we fell short of our goal for the third quarter, but recent trends have returned solidly positive. I am encouraged to see that our comparable venue sales growth for October is approximately 2.5%."

As of the end of Q3, CEC and its franchisees operated 610 Chuck E. Cheese and 128 Peter Piper Pizza venues, with locations in 47 states and 15 foreign countries and territories.