Bay Venues has reported a financial benefit from amalgamating Tauranga City Venues Ltd and Tauranga City Aquatics Ltd into a new organisation.
Bay Venues Ltd (a Council Controlled Organisation) presented its first six month report to the Tauranga City Council yesterday with a number of positive indicators and trends being highlighted.
Revenue was $299,000 (4 per cent) ahead of budget, user visits across the network of Bay Venues facilities was 51,000 (6 per cent) ahead of budget, and they were on track to meet the operating cost savings target of nearly $600,000 for the year, cheif executive Gary Dawson said.
"Bay Venues has spent the first six months of the 2014/15 year, working to truly understand customer drivers so that these can be used to drive business growth and customer satisfaction over the medium to longer term," Mr Dawson said.
Key initiatives have been a Customer Insights Programme, plus the management of scheduled maintenance work at the Mt Hot Pools, ASB Arena, Baywave Clubfit and at Greerton Aquatic & Leisure Centre.
"As a result of these projects and other programme and service initiatives, Bay Venues are experiencing the consistent increase of user hours and user visits" Mr Dawson said.
Bay Venues also spoke of its desire to support Council in its bid to improve its venue network and to increase the number of events held in the city.
"Venues and events will be key economic drivers for Tauranga which is why we have led discussions around the development of new venues or the changed utilisation of existing venues. Our aim overall is to provide high quality facilities and services so that promoters will regard Tauranga as a place to do business," said Mr Dawson.
A key project to come to the attention of the organisation in the proposal to take the disused Cosmopolitan Club and turn it into a high performance training centre, subject to key financial support being secured.
"Overall we are satisfied with our performance, and grateful for the support we have received from Council and the community at large," said Mr Dawson.
