Viking River Cruises Inc. and Uniworld River Cruises Inc. are sailing the upturn in worldwide travel.
Last year, the two local river cruise companies saw revenues and passengers rise a trend they don’t expect to reverse. The companies, which together constitute about a third of the river cruising market, are adding ships and trips to capture the demand.
“People are starting to realize that there is an alternative to the traditional coach tour and an alternative to ocean cruising,” said Jeff Dash, president of the U.S. office of Woodland Hills-based Viking. “We are early in the growth phase.”
Viking has set a conservative goal of 20 percent annual revenue growth. Since a year ago, the company has had a 55 percent increase in gross revenues and a 44 percent jump in the number of passengers.
China is an important revenue driver. Viking started taking passengers to China in 2004, and now has two ships that navigate the Yangtze River from Beijing to Shanghai.
Viking estimates 14,000 travelers will board its China cruises this year, up from 4,400 in 2004. In total, the company predicts 50,000 U.S. passengers will travel on its 23 ships this year, 5,000 more than last year. Each ship carries 150 to 300 people.
Meanwhile, Encino-based Uniworld saw a jump of about 20 percent in passengers last year. Uniworld, which was bought by Travel Corp. in 2004, has 21 ships and will add one starting next month.
“We have had such a good year that we are adding destinations (and) adding ship capacity,” said spokeswoman Julie Zirbel. “It is a hot industry right now.”
It’s baby boomers who are hopping onto river cruise ships. Viking’s cruises start at $2,700 per passenger and go up to over $5,000 per passenger.
High Margins
Consumer demand for specialty foods is adding to the bottom line of wholesale distributor Unified Western Grocers.
After a series of acquisitions, Commerce-based Unified Western ended up with two units that delivered ethnic food and gourmet products that it has now put under one roof called Market Centre.
“It is a coupling of services and products underneath a common umbrella,” said Tom Schaffner, a spokesman for Unified. “We are trying to communicate to them (retailers) that we are more of a one-stop shop than others.”
Interest in those specialty items, which typically line the perimeter of grocery markets, has grown, while staples at the center of the store have suffered comparably.
Specialty products have another benefit: They have higher margins in a grocery business that’s generally relied on products with low margins but high volume. With unique items, grocery markets can also stand out from the offerings of their big-box competitors that have jumped at peddling low-cost staples to price-conscious customers.
“They use a lot of these specialty products to upgrade their organic or Hispanic (sections) in order to do something a Costco will never do,” Schaffner said.
At Unified, retailers’ specialty product expansion is showing up in financial results. Sales of the specialty offerings increased nearly $7 million in the 13 weeks ended Dec. 31 last year compared to the same period the prior year.
Home Building
The California Market Center continues to fiddle with its gift and home leasing.
Jamison Properties Inc., the fashion showroom building’s owner, has brought on Jon Weiglin, former president and chief operating officer of the L.A. Mart, as its director of leasing in the segment. Weiglin replaces Robert Sotomayor, who served in the position for only a few months.
“We are committed to aggressively growing the gift and home sector of the building, and we believe that Jon’s expertise will help us get one step closer to achieving our goals,” John Kim, general manager of the CMC, told trade publication Home Accents Today.
With Weiglin at the helm of gift and home leasing, the hope is that CMC tenants will not flee the building for rival L.A. Mart. Last year, the building lost key tenant Firestone Marketing Group to the Mart.
Weiglin said the CMC can attract retail buyers by producing special events. “Quality product drives retail traffic for whatever venue,” he said. “In the short term, creating smaller events that bring in quality product will drive retail traffic.”
In his time at the L.A. Mart, Weiglin produced results: He helped push the sales volume to $15 million from $7 million, and increased tenant occupancy from to 98 percent from 51 percent, according to information in Home Accents Today. He told the publication he expects to bring the CMC’s gift and home occupancy up to 80 percent in four years from 51 percent today.
*Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 224, or at
[email protected]
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