Central Oregonian

Holiday sales boost revenues at Meadow Lakes

Revenues have dropped, but profitability has increased at the City-owned facility

JASON CHANEY/CENTRAL OREGONIAN

Meadow Lakes Restaurant server Tabatha Beardsley takes a lunch order. The facility set records for restaurant net income and golf gift certificate sales during the past holiday season.

Jason Chaney

January 21, 2013

The Meadow Lakes Golf Course may still face declining revenue, but record restaurant sales totals during the holiday season have given the facility a boost.

Facility manager Zach Lambert said that the restaurant broke a record for net income during the holidays primarily on the strength of their banquet sales. Number of banquets increased 26 percent from the previous year, and restaurant sales rose 35 percent from the previous holiday season.

“This is the first year in the last three that we pushed the banquets more,” he said, “and we were able to pretty efficiently manage that, so we increased our numbers quite a bit.”

Lambert said that in the past, the restaurant pushed banquet sales and made more money as a result. The problem was they spent more money to provide them.

“So, (this year) we kind of changed our business plan to cut back on (expenses).”

The restaurant has also benefitted from a new manager who Lambert said has done a good job for them.

“She was able to bring on an additional cook in the back who is fantastic,” he said. “We have a really good banquet cook. She saves us just by herself. She can cook for groups of up to 150 basically by herself, and people are really impressed with what they are getting.”

Meadow Lakes also set a record for golfing gift certificate sales — for the second straight year. A year ago, they sold 1,478 to set a new record. This year, they increased that number to 1,747.

“We kind of blew that record out,” Lambert said.

He said that they like to sell the gift certificates because it gives the customers a nearly-half-price discount on summer weekend rates. Plus, they can anticipate future business.

“If you sell that many, you know you are going to have a lot of people coming to play here.”

The elevated sales and reduced expenses have helped Meadow Lakes compensate for declining golf revenue. Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester said they have seen an annual decline in golf sales since 2007, an occurrence consistent with the golf industry nationwide.

“We are putting more dollars back into the fund . . . than we were when we were at 2007-level revenues,” he said. “This (the record sales) is very encouraging, and I can’t say enough about Zach Lambert, and the restaurant and the whole gang out there have done good things.”

In Fiscal Year 2012, golf course revenue collected through December was about $357,000. During the same timeframe in Fiscal Year 2013, golf course revenue dropped to $328,000. In spite of that decline, profit for the Meadow Lakes facility increased. In the 2012 fiscal year, through December, Meadow Lakes earned a $17,262 profit. During the same timeframe in Fiscal Year 2013, that profit rose to $42,608.

Like Forrester, the Meadow Lakes staff was pleased with the outcome, and Lambert was particularly happy that they could significantly boost their banquet revenues and keep expenses low.

“It made for a nice holiday season,” he said.