Raphael Stevens

Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020.
The family entertainment chain has been plotting a comeback since exiting bankruptcy and spending more than $300 million to entertain the newest generation.
Trampolines, a retooled pizza recipe and the elimination of animatronics have been some of the biggest changes made under CEO Dave McKillips.

Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company has spent $230 million renovated its stores.
Source: CEC Entertainment

Four years after exiting bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese is making a comeback, thanks to a dramatic makeover to introduce its games and pizza to a new generation.
In June 2020, just as some states began lifting their pandemic lockdowns, Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It emerged from bankruptcy months later with new leadership and freed from about $705 million in debt.

Even when Covid subsided, the company faced another existential threat: figuring out how to entertain children – and their paying parents – in the age of iPads and smartphones. The company has spent more than $300 million in recent years tackling that challenge — and the investment has started to pay off.
CEC Entertainment, which also includes Pasqually’s Pizza & Wings and Peter Piper Pizza, has seen eight straight months of same-store sales growth and is no longer in debt, according to CEO Dave McKillips. The company isn’t publicly traded, but it discloses its financial results to its bond investors.
CEC Entertainment’s annual revenue grew from $912 million in 2019 to roughly $1.2 billion in 2023, according to Reuters. And that’s with fewer open Chuck E. Cheese locations. The chain has 470 U.S. locations currently, down from 537 in 2019.
Sustaining the growth won’t be easy. Like all restaurants, the chain has to win over consumers who are eating out less often as costs rise. Chuck E. Cheese also has to draw the attention of children and parents in a fragmented media market.

Goodbye, animatronics

Since Atari founder Nolan Bushnell opened its first location in 1977 in San Jose, Chuck E. Cheese has grown to become a staple of many childhoods, known for its pizza, birthday parties and animatronic mouse mascot and band.

After exiting bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese and its stores underwent a makeover, giving today’s locations a very different look. Gone are the animatronics, SkyTube tunnels and physical tickets of yore. Instead, trampolines, a mobile app and floor-to-ceiling JumboTrons have replaced them.
Those changes came from McKillips, a former Six Flags executive. He joined the company in January 2020, just months before lockdowns would temporarily shutter all of its locations. By April 2021, the company raised $650 million in bonds, which it’s been spending on its restaurants.
“The company was capital-starved for many, many years. It had not been remodeled. It had not been touched,” he said.
Apollo Global Management took Chuck E. Cheese private in 2014. Five years later, CEC Entertainment tried to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. But the deal was scrapped without explanation.
The new cash prompted a frank look at the Chuck E. Cheese model – including its iconic animatronic band, featuring Charles Entertainment Cheese and his friends.
“We pulled out the animatronics. It was a hot debate for many legacy bands, but kids were consuming entertainment in such a different way, you know, growing up with screens and ever-changing bite-sized entertainment,” McKillips said.
The chain also redid its menu, upgrading to scratch-made pizzas. Kidz Bop became an official music partner. Other kid-friendly brands, like Paw Patrol, Marvel and Nickelodeon, became partners for its games.
And then came the trampolines.
“We found one glaring opportunity for us … active play,” McKillips said. He added that growth in the family entertainment category is largely coming from activity-based businesses, like trampoline parks and rock-climbing walls.
The company first tested the trampolines in Brooklyn and then in Miami, St. Louis and Orlando. As of December, 450 Chuck E. Cheese locations now have kid-sized trampolines. And unlike the SkyTubes or ball pits of the past, customers have to pay extra to use trampolines. (The ball pits disappeared from Chuck E. Cheese locations in 2011, while SkyTubes lasted roughly another decade.)
After the company spent $230 million to remodel Chuck E. Cheese locations, McKillips now says that process is finished.
“We needed to fix the product. The product is fixed,” he said.

Subscription spenders

Reintroducing customers to the brand — especially adults who only know the Chuck E. Cheese of their own childhoods — has been another focus.
“You come in around three years old, you leave around eight or nine and you don’t come back for 15 years. We had to go and speak to a whole new generation of kids, and we were off-air during Covid. We had to build all that,” McKillips said.
For example, Chuck E. Cheese’s birthday business, one of the company’s best marketing tools, struggled in the wake of the pandemic. Today, it’s back at pre-pandemic levels.
And as Chuck E. Cheese started seeing the pullback in consumer spending that hit many restaurants last year, from McDonald’s to Outback Steakhouse, the chain had to come up with a way to appeal to the value-oriented customer.
Over the summer, Chuck E. Cheese launched a two-month tiered subscription program that offered unlimited visits and discounts on food, drinks and games. The membership encouraged families to visit more often than the typical two or three annual visits. The subscription starts at $7.99 a month, with additional tiers at $11.99 and $29.99 that promise steeper discounts and more games played.
“In 2023, we sold 79,000 passes. This year, we sold close to 400,000 passes during the same time period,” McKillips said, referring to 2024. “This shows that the value consumer will seek and will spend if they’re getting great return on their spend.”
In the fall, the company followed up on the success of the passes with a 12-month membership and has already sold more than 100,000 of them.

An entertainment empire?

McKillips’ biggest dreams for the chain and its mascots lie outside of the four walls of its restaurants.
“There’s another cute mouse down in Orlando that does this pretty well, so I see us in the same way, but we’re just getting started right now,” McKillips said.
In addition to 30 licensing deals for everything from frozen pizzas to apparel, Chuck E. Cheese is also exploring different entertainment partnerships that would make its mouse mascot a starring character, according to McKillips.
And that’s not all. The company has looked into the possibility of a game show. It has a prolific YouTube channel, with videos focused on its characters, not its pizza or games.
Plus, Chuck E. Cheese himself has six albums available on streaming platforms, and his band plays live, choreographed concerts.
“My dream would be to have a feature movie,” McKillips said. More

Delta forecast first-quarter earnings of between 70 cents and $1, slightly higher than analysts’ estimates.
Delta beat sales and earnings estimates for the last three months of the year.
The carrier is the first of the major U.S. airlines to report results.

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, speaking on CNBC’s Power Lunch on Dec. 17th, 2024.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Delta Air Lines’ first-quarter outlook on Friday topped analyst expectations as the carrier forecast strong travel demand to start the year, which CEO Ed Bastian said will likely be the carrier’s best ever.
Delta said it expects to generate more than $4 billion in free cash this year, up 18% from 2024 and in the midpoint of its annual target of between $3 billion and $5 billion. For the full year, it expects annual adjusted earnings more than of $7.35 per share.

“We feel quite good coming into the new year,” Bastian told CNBC. “Everywhere, we see consumers continue to prioritize experience over goods.”
That is setting up Delta for “our best financial year in our history,” Bastian added.
Here’s how the company performed in the three months ended Dec. 31 compared with Wall Street expectations based on consensus estimates from LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.85 adjusted vs. $1.75 expected
Revenue: $14.44 billion adjusted vs. $14.18 billion expected

Delta said it expects revenue to rise 7% to 9%, ahead of the roughly 5% growth analysts polled by LSEG had forecast. The carrier expects first-quarter earnings per share of between 70 cents and $1, slightly ahead of Wall Street predictions of between 65 cents and 97 cents.
The Atlanta-based airline is the first major U.S. carrier to report earnings this quarter. Airlines have enjoyed strong post-pandemic travel demand, which analysts said is likely to continue this year, with a few deals along the way for consumers.

Delta has said it’s been capitalizing on a boom in premium travel as more customers shell out for roomier seats or rewards credit cards.
Delta shares were up more than 6% in premarket trading. Airline stocks have rallied in recent months. Shares in Delta’s chief rival, United Airlines, gained more than 130% over the past 12 months. Delta shares are up more than 45% in that period. 

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Delta’s American Express partnership brought in $2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 14% from the year-earlier period. Revenue from premium seats, such as first class and premium economy, rose 8% in the fourth quarter to $5.2 billion compared with a 2% rise in main cabin ticket revenue to about $6 billion.
Unit revenue, a measure of how much revenue an airline is bringing in for how much it flies, rose 4% in the fourth quarter from 2023.
Delta’s profit fell 59% to $843 million in the last three months of the year from the same period of 2023 as expenses, including payroll, rose 7% or $942 million. Revenue rose 9% to $15.6 billion from a year-earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, Delta posted per-share earnings of $1.85 in the fourth quarter, on adjusted revenue of $14.44 billion, both ahead of analysts’ estimates.

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Walgreens reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.
The company capped off a rocky 2024 marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues.
Walgreens maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share, but did not include a sales outlook in its release.

People make their way near a Walgreens pharmacy on March 09, 2023 in New York City. 
Leonardo Munoz | Corbis News | Getty Images

Walgreens on Friday reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped expectations, as it shutters stores and cuts other costs to steer itself out of a rough spot.
Here’s what Walgreens reported for the three-month period ended Nov. 30 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 51 cents adjusted vs. 37 cents expected
Revenue: $39.46 billion vs. $37.36 billion expected

Even after the big beats, Walgreens maintained its fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.40 to $1.80 per share. The company did not include annual sales guidance in its release. In October, Walgreens said it expects revenue for the fiscal year of $147 billion to $151 billion. 
The company’s shares jumped about 10% in premarket trading.
Walgreens capped off a rocky past year marked by pharmacy reimbursement pressure, softer consumer spending and challenges related to its push into primary care, among other issues. The results come amid reports that the company is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore Partners. 
During the fiscal first quarter, Walgreens booked sales of $39.46 billion, up 7.5% from the same period a year ago, as its three business segments grew. 
The company reported a net loss of $265 million, or 31 cents per share, for the fiscal first quarter. It compares with a net loss of $67 million, or 8 cents per share, for the year-earlier period.

Walgreens said the loss was primarily driven by higher operating losses, which reflect its multiyear plan to close underperforming stores. That includes 1,200 over the next three years, with 500 in fiscal 2025 alone. 
Walgreens has around 8,500 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S., according to its website.
Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were 51 cents per share for the quarter. 
The first-quarter results “reflect our disciplined execution against our 2025 priorities: stabilizing the retail pharmacy by optimizing our footprint, controlling operating costs, improving cash flow and continuing to address reimbursement models,” Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in a release. 
He added that “while our turnaround will take time, our early progress reinforces our belief in a sustainable, retail pharmacy-led operating Model.” 

Growth across business units

Walgreens posted growth across its three business segments in the fiscal first quarter. 
The company’s U.S. retail pharmacy division generated $30.87 billion in sales, an increase of 6.6% from the same period last year. Analysts had expected sales of $29.21 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
That unit operates the company’s drugstores, which sell prescription and nonprescription medications as well as health and wellness, beauty, personal care, and food products.  
Walgreens said pharmacy sales for the quarter rose 10.4% and comparable pharmacy sales increased 12.7% compared with the year-earlier period due to price inflation in brand medications, among other factors. 

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Total prescriptions filled in the quarter, including vaccines, came to 316.3 million, a 1.5% increase from the same period a year ago. Retail sales fell 6.2% from the prior-year quarter, and comparable retail sales declined 4.6%. The company cited a weaker cough, cold and flu season and lower sales in discretionary product categories. 
Sales from the company’s U.S. health-care unit jumped to $2.17 billion in the fiscal first quarter, up more than 12% from the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected sales of $2.09 billion, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
That partly reflects growth in primary-care provider VillageMD and specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions. Specialty pharmacies are designed to deliver medications with unique handling, storage and distribution requirements, often for patients with complex conditions. 
Walgreens’ international unit, which operates more than 3,000 retail stores abroad, booked $6.43 billion in sales in the fiscal first quarter. That’s an increase of 10.2% from the year-ago period.
Analysts expected revenue of $5.85 billion for the period, according to StreetAccount. 
The company said sales from its U.K.-based drugstore chain, Boots, increased 4.5%.

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Wayfair is exiting Germany and plans to cut as many as 730 jobs, or 3% of its global workforce.
The online home goods company wants to reprioritize investments and sees a better return on other initiatives, such as physical retail, finance chief Kate Gulliver told CNBC.
“Scaling our market share and improving our unit economics in the German market has proven challenging,” founder and CEO Niraj Shah said in an employee memo shared with CNBC.

Cheng Xin | Getty Images

Wayfair is exiting the German market and plans to cut as many as 730 jobs, or about 3% of its global workforce, as it looks to focus on new growth drivers such as physical retail, the company said Friday.
About half of the affected employees will have the option to stay on with Wayfair if they agree to relocate to London, Boston or other locations where the company has a presence, finance chief Kate Gulliver told CNBC in an interview. The affected positions include corporate roles as well as roles on Wayfair’s customer service and warehouse teams, she said.

In a memo to employees shared with CNBC, founder and CEO Niraj Shah said it would take too much time and money for Wayfair to expand its business in Germany and the company’s dollars would be better used for other growth initiatives.
“Scaling our market share and improving our unit economics in the German market has proven challenging due to factors such as the weak macroeconomic conditions for our category in Germany, the lower maturity of our offering, our current brand awareness, and our limited scale,” wrote Shah.
“In our recent assessment, we concluded that achieving market-leading growth in Germany remained a long and costly endeavor, and one that is increasingly lagging the potential return we see in other areas. To ensure we align our resources with initiatives that can deliver the greatest impact, we made the difficult but necessary decision to reallocate efforts to areas with strong long-term potential where our current efforts are showing great progress,” he wrote.
Shares rose about 5% in premarket trading Friday.
Germany, where Wayfair has been operating for 15 years, makes up a “low single digit percentage” of Wayfair’s revenue, customers and orders, Gulliver said. The restructuring is expected to cost between $102 million and $111 million, which includes $40 million to $44 million in employee-related costs like severance, benefits, relocation and transition costs and around $62 million to $67 million in non-cash charges related to facility closures and other wind-down activities, Wayfair said in a securities filing.

The company expects to make those payments over the next 12 months, but they are expected to be incurred across the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 — a six-month period set to conclude at the end of March.
Wayfair expects to reinvest any savings from restructuring mostly across other core initiatives, such as its physical retail plans and its remaining international markets, it said in a securities filing. The company’s guidance isn’t changing, said Gulliver.
Friday’s layoffs are the fourth that Wayfair has implemented since summer 2022, but this move is less about cost savings and more about reallocating resources to initiatives that are actually making the company money, said Gulliver. 
“We’re not doing this because we’re saying that we need some, you know, cost efficiency play, and so therefore we had to look for more costs and we identified Germany,” said Gulliver. “We see better ROI initiatives that we are already further along on that we can continue to invest in. So it’s an investment prioritization, and [we’re] going after areas like the U.K., Canada, etc. where we see a really exciting opportunity.” 
Those initiatives include Wayfair’s foray into physical retail, which began in earnest in May when it opened its first namesake store outside Chicago. Since the location opened, the company has enjoyed what Gulliver described as a “halo effect,” where online sales to customers who live near the store have increased. It plans to open another store or two in the U.S. “in short order” and also hopes to expand those doors to international markets such as Canada and the U.K., said Gulliver.
“Obviously, we want to nail it in the U.S. first,” said Gulliver. “But we are excited about the potential over time.” 
Still, physical retail can be a massive capital expenditure. And Wayfair hasn’t turned an annual net profit since 2020.
Wayfair’s decision comes as the company looks to boost topline growth in a sluggish housing market that has dampened demand for all things home. In the three months ended Sept. 30, sales fell 2% to $2.9 billion.
“It’s always difficult to make a decision that impacts humans,” she said. “We care very deeply about the team there, and we’re so appreciative of their work, but we do believe that this is the right next step for the business to allow us to focus on these higher ROI priorities.”  More

Ford Motor’s operations in China earned roughly $600 million last year.
Farley said those earnings included the export of vehicles such as the Lincoln Nautilus, which is exclusively produced in China for other markets such as the U.S.
China has been an increasingly challenging market for automakers, especially western legacy companies such as Ford and General Motors.

Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley during a reveal of a special-edition Ford Mustang GTD for the Detroit Auto Show on Jan 9, 2024.
Michael Wayland/ CNBC

DETROIT — Ford Motor’s operations in China earned roughly $600 million last year despite challenging market conditions, CEO Jim Farley said Thursday night.
“I’m happy to say that Ford makes money in China, and I’m very proud of that, because not many [automakers] can say that,” Farley said following a vehicle reveal for the Detroit Auto Show.

Farley said those earnings included the export of vehicles such as the Lincoln Nautilus, which is exclusively produced in China for other markets such as the U.S.
China has been an increasingly challenging market for automakers, especially western legacy companies such as Ford and General Motors.
Ford does not report earnings by region, but Farley has previously touted the company’s evolving “asset-light” strategy in China. More

Ford Motor revealed a special edition of its $325,000 Mustang GTD called “Spirit of America.”
The Mustang GTD features a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 engine that produces 815 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque.
The GTD models are part of Ford’s plans to expand the Mustang nameplate into the higher echelons of the sports car and racing worlds.

2025 Mustang GTD Spirit of America

DETROIT — Ford Motor on Thursday revealed a special edition of its $325,000 Mustang GTD called “Spirit of America,” a nod to historical jet-propelled cars sharing the same name.
The white vehicle features red and blue stripes down its center, matching the overalls that Spirit of America driver Craig Breedlove wore when he broke both the 500 mph and 600 mph barriers in the 1960s.

Ford, which revealed the car for the Detroit Auto Show, declined to disclose pricing for the special-edition vehicle, which is based on the automaker’s current GTD.

2025 Mustang GTD Spirit of America

The Mustang GTD features a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 engine that produces 815 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque — the most powerful production Mustang in history. The car’s top speed is 202 mph.
The GTD is part of Ford’s plans to expand the Mustang nameplate into the higher echelons of the sports car and racing worlds.
Ford said it received more than 7,500 applications for the 2025 and 2026 Mustang GTDs during last year’s application window.

2025 Mustang GTD Spirit of America More

International airfare is falling this year over last, while domestic U.S. tickets are more expensive, according to Hopper.
Airlines have increased capacity to popular destinations like Japan from the U.S. in recent years.
Demand isn’t expected to have the big spikes that materialized in the years following the pandemic.

Tourists take photos in Shinsekai with Tsutenkaku tower in sight in Osaka, Japan, on December 12, 2024. 
Kichul Shin | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Planning an international trip this year? You could be in luck, if you’re willing to fly far.
Long-haul trips are cheaper than last year, according to data released this week from flight-tracking company Hopper.

For example, through mid-2025, flights between the U.S. and Asia are down 11% this year over last, averaging $1,087, with capacity up 6% from 2024. Europe flights are down 6% at $754, Hopper data shows.
Flights to Africa and the Middle East are flat compared with last year, while flights to South America are down 4% to $685, and Mexico and Central America flights from the U.S. are up 9% to $469.
Meanwhile, domestic U.S. ticket prices are on the rise, as airlines have become more cautious about capacity growth in the U.S. and face aircraft delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus.

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But the cheaper international trips come as airlines have increased capacity to popular destinations and as demand growth has leveled out compared with post-pandemic surges, when travelers raced to book trips abroad after travel restrictions were lifted. Fares were higher as airlines faced labor and aircraft shortages coming out of the pandemic.
As airlines have ramped up capacity, Europe fares late last year were the lowest in years.

“You’re definitely not at a point now where there’s pent-up demand left,” said Scott Keyes, founder of travel app Going, previously known as Scott’s Cheap Flights.

Favorable exchange rates for travelers using U.S. dollars in many countries, including hotspot Japan, have boosted demand. International visitors to Japan surged nearly 50% in the first 11 months of 2024 to close to 33.4 million people, according to Japanese government data.
Travel-search site Kayak said flights to Asia are the cheapest in at least three years, with interest from customers on the rise. Japanese cities Tokyo, Sapporo and Osaka are posting the biggest percentage increases in searches, Kayak noted.

Tourists sit in front of the Patong Beach sign by the seafront on the southern Thai island of Phuket on Nov. 29, 2024. 
Chanakarn Laosarakham | AFP | Getty Images

It also said airfares are lower across the Caribbean, with cheaper tickets to Dominica (down 21% over last year), and Barbados and St. Lucia, which are down 17% compared with last year, Kayak said.
Travelers flying this year are also more interested in business class, a trend carriers like Delta, which kicks off 2025 airline earnings on Friday, have capitalized on.
Kayak estimates that searches for those four-digit business class fares are up 19% over last year.

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