Margaritaville: how much money did they make (if any) with ncl?

[fstuff1]

Now that their contract is over and their presence of being replaced with American dinner, did they have a profitable relationship with ncl?

 

[ColeThornton]

I would imagine if it was profitable they would still be there.  From most accounts on here the restaurants were empty most of the time.

[NLH Arizona]

It depends on how the contract was written.  

[tallnthensome]

I would imagine between $60 and $90 profit total if I had to guess based on the occupancy every time we walked by on various cruises. 

[Liljo22]

I highly doubt this was anything more of a naming rights deal.  Margaritaville would get a yearly set amount for use of the name.  The question would be if NCL was profitable from the cost of the name use and I would guess no.

[BirdTravels]

NCL made their money. Margaritaville paid to have their brand installed (restaurant and 2 bars per ship) and NCL got most of the profits from sales. 

[PlayCousin]

I might be alone but I will miss Margaritaville. Went several times on last cruise. Probably the closest I ever came to a food coma on a ship. 

[NLH Arizona]

7 minutes ago, PlayCousin said:

I might be alone but I will miss Margaritaville. Went several times on last cruise. Probably the closest I ever came to a food coma on a ship. 

Not alone, I went twice for lunch on my last cruise.  It was enjoyable having queso and chips and a burger while watching the world go by.  

[Georgia_Peaches]

We embark on Escape on Saturday and my first stop will be to the bar in Margaritaville for my embarkation drink.   I will miss the extensive margarita menu...and agree that it's a nice place to get some chips and queso and watch the world.

[PATRLR]

On 2/22/2020 at 12:25 PM, NLH Arizona said:

It depends on how the contract was written.  

Very helpful reply.

[PATRLR]

On 2/22/2020 at 1:03 PM, Liljo22 said:

I highly doubt this was anything more of a naming rights deal.  Margaritaville would get a yearly set amount for use of the name.  The question would be if NCL was profitable from the cost of the name use and I would guess no.

 

On 2/22/2020 at 1:52 PM, BirdTravels said:

NCL made their money. Margaritaville paid to have their brand installed (restaurant and 2 bars per ship) and NCL got most of the profits from sales. 

 

 I would have thought NCL paid Margaritaville, not the other way around.  Obviously one of either Liljo22 or BirdTravels doesn't know.  Can anyone say with certainty or maybe even a reference, who paid who?

[Liljo22]

2 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

 

 

 I would have thought NCL paid Margaritaville, not the other way around.  Obviously one of either Liljo22 or BirdTravels doesn't know.  Can anyone say with certainty or maybe even a reference, who paid who?

 

I don't have any information on this.  I only assumed it was a naming rights deal like you did.  

[hallux]

58 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Very helpful reply.

Well, unless someone here has actually seen the contract it's about as accurate and helpful as answers can get.

[PATRLR]

43 minutes ago, hallux said:

Well, unless someone here has actually seen the contract it's about as accurate and helpful as answers can get.

Nonsense.

 

First - you would NOT need to see the contract to know if the relationship was profitable for NCL.  I would be willing to bet there are people in the NCL finance department that have never seen the contract but do know whether it was profitable or not.

 

"It depends on how the contract was written." - Is there any business relationship who's profitability doesn't depend on "how the contract was written"?  That statement applies to every single business relationship that has a contract!  I can't imagine that statement was helpful to anyone.  I am quite certain that statement is not "as ... helpful as answers can get".  I am quite certain answers can get a lot more helpful.

 

 

[NLH Arizona]

1 hour ago, hallux said:

Well, unless someone here has actually seen the contract it's about as accurate and helpful as answers can get.

Excactly, someone on here would have to read the contract and financials to see if it was profitable or not. 

 

There are many ways these kind of contracts are written.  It could be as easy as Margaritaville being paid to use their name, likeness and menu OR NCL allows them to be on the ship and they get the proceeds OR the contract says they do X amount in revenue and if they don't reach that amount NCL picks up the difference OR Margaritaville gets a certain percent of the revenue.  And there are probably ten more ways the contract could be written and unless you see the contract, posters have no idea if it were profitable or not.  Now I'm sure some will guess what the contract says, but who knows.

Edited February 24, 2020 by NLH Arizona

[luv2kroooz]

2 hours ago, PATRLR said:

 

 

 I would have thought NCL paid Margaritaville, not the other way around.  Obviously one of either Liljo22 or BirdTravels doesn't know.  Can anyone say with certainty or maybe even a reference, who paid who?

I can't say for sure, but I tend to agree with you. However, typically NCL (licensee) would pay a license or royalty fee for the right to use the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville brand/franchise name. I think it was the same with the other NCL partnerships.....Nickelodeon at Sea, Jose Garces, Geoffrey Zakarian, Svedka Ice Bar, etc.

[PATRLR]

1 hour ago, NLH Arizona said:

Exactly, someone on here would have to read the contract and financials to see if it was profitable or not. 

You would not necessarily need to see the contract to know if it was profitable.  Financials, certainly.  Contract, doubtful. 

 

Of course your first statement referenced only the contract.

[jbcallender]

There is usually a franchise or licensing fee, which can be an amount per head served or a % of revenue.  Then you also have to buy branded packaging, merchandise and sometimes food and beverage items items from franchisor.

[smplybcause]

4 hours ago, PATRLR said:

You would not necessarily need to see the contract to know if it was profitable.  Financials, certainly.  Contract, doubtful. 

 

Of course your first statement referenced only the contract.

 

Possibly, but I doubt just looking at financials would tell with such a large company. Large companies usually don't have an account for any and everything - often because it's multiple accounts. Margaritaville would need one for revenue and for each type of expenses. Multiply that by all the projects they've ever done, plus all the regular splits and suddenly you have a GL that's hundreds of thousands of accounts - and ain't nobody want to mess with that! Especially since there's a good chance NCL breaks it all out by ship so multiply all that by the number of ships with it!! In fact, when my company (which while large is only about 1/5 of NCL's revenue) redid our GL into a new program we actually had to collapse several accounts because it didn't allow that many - so now you have to know even more about projects to know where to look for all the money. Now I know there's some other ways to add identifying info to entries (I'm accounting adjacent don't ask me on specifics) but unless you're working on all aspects of the project you're flying blind to actually pull all the info unless you know everywhere to look -- which is what a contract would tell you. That's how you'd know whether to look in licensing, consulting, COGS, and other areas. 

 

It's just not as simple as one would think. 

[AlyssaJames]

RIP Flamingo Grill. Best greed-decimated venue at sea.

[waterjock]

When Margaritaville open it was free and had waiting lines. I think NCL paid a branding fee based on restaurant volume they where not making profits so they started charging to eat there people stopped going their. But NCL was locked into a yearly contract so it could not close the restaurant till the end of the contract.

[esm54687]

On 2/24/2020 at 6:14 PM, PATRLR said:

You would not necessarily need to see the contract to know if it was profitable.  Financials, certainly.  Contract, doubtful. 

 

Of course your first statement referenced only the contract.

The contract is more important than financials to determine who the relationship favored.... 

 

Simple Hypothetical:

Financials indicate that the Margaritaville restaurant made a profit of 100 million dollars across the fleet in food and merchandise.

 

Just the financial information gives you zero knowledge of who made money on the deal. 

 

Now introduce the contract where it says Margaritaville earns 51% of all profits.

 

Well, financials didn't say much but the contract certainly told the whole story...... whether it was $1 or $100,000,000 the contract outlined the relationship.

[jskinsd]

On 2/22/2020 at 9:13 AM, fstuff1 said:

Now that their contract is over and their presence of being replaced with American dinner, did they have a profitable relationship with ncl?

 

Who cares.  It was just another restaurant option.  So it is being replaced.  What is your opinion? ✌️

[Farts]

aNyone know from the NCL investor meetings/documents?