NEWS
MAKER
Stephen DiPrima
Sodexo exec says guest tradedowns drove Leisure growth
Stephen DiPrima, division president
of Sodexo USA’s
Leisure and Recreation
Services, says that
despite the recession
his group’s business
has grown 23 percent
as consumers trade
long-distance trips for
daytrips to zoos, museums and theme parks.
The key to maintaining
that momentum, he says, is providing
the best possible product and service
at the group’s lengthening roster of
sports and theme parks and cultural
destinations.
Sports parks are something new for
Sodexo in the States, right?
We entered into a relationship with
RFK Stadium [in Washington, D.C.]
this past year, and that’s been very
successful. And our college division
runs stadiums that are tied to different colleges and universities. But
our sweet spot has really been museums, aquariums and zoos. We do
have a very high-quality focus, so we
see a real opportunity in the sports
and stadiums business, to be able to
deliver a high-quality visitor experience. We’re looking at that market
closely and will add relationships
where we think it makes sense and
where we think we can be successful.
How do you account for the Leisure
group’s growth despite the economic
downturn?
In our cultural-destination business,
sales are divided into two parts: visitor dining and special-events sales.
For the most part, attendance has
been holding. We have quite a bit of
anecdotal information that tells us
families are doing shorter vacations
and “staycations,” which means
there are more visits to ballparks
and zoos. There has been a large
drop in corporate catering, but business from social and nonprofit
events is strong, still good. I mean,
maybe it’s not growing as fast as it
did in the past, but it’s not heading in
the wrong direction like some of the
corporate dining and catering has
been. We are continuing to add new
products and innovative promotions,
adding points of service that help us
to enjoy rising per caps even in this
environment. We’re giving visitors
what they want in a quick format
that focuses on quality.
How are you promoting the
perception of value?
We’re trying a lot of different things: combo
meals that increase the
perception of value for
visitors, a variety of
kids’ meals and the addition of new products.
At a theme park we
AT A GLANCE
EDUCATION: bachelor of science
degree in hotel management,
Dallas Baptist University in Dallas
AGE: 48
HOMETOWN: Naperville, Ill.
HOBBIES: “I’m a dabbler; I play a
lot of tennis, am a big baseball fan
and love the stock market, but not
as much as I used to.”
PERSONAL: married, three children
serve in New Hampshire, we noticed there was a good piece of real
estate there so we decided to put a
fried-dough stand there. It’s the
kind of thing that’s very common
in the New England market; it’s a
flat piece of dough served with confectionary sugar. It’s an example of
something we try to make sure
we’re doing — adding something
that fits into the theme of the
venue that doesn’t necessarily
have a broader, national appeal
but maybe a local appeal.
What parts of the business are not
doing as well as expected and what
are you doing to turn that around?
It really goes venue by venue. Those
that rely on corporate catering are
suffering and those that are weighted more toward social dining are not
as bad. In times like this it’s easy to
take a short-term view of things. One
thing we haven’t done is reduce resources or staff. This economic downturn is going to end, and when it
does we want to capture an even bigger portion of [business] than we already have.
What are the biggest challenges you
face right now?
Managing the short-term deterioration in sales while focusing on quality and preparing for the eventual
turnaround. We’re growing very fast,
so it’s important we have a strong
bench and make sure our managers
have the tools to be successful.
— Elissa Elan
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