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[Junior, too!]

This may be old news for some of you, but I discovered a July 2014 article on Daily Mail.com, an English newspaper, which reviewed the Forbes most wealthy list, and the Herschend Family wealth was estimated at $1.1 billion!  Honestly, I never would have guessed that much. Seems like the article said they were somewhere in the range of the 170th richest family. Pretty good for starting their business with nothing more than a really cool cave and a dream for a comfortable retirement for Hugo and Mary. Comments?

[Duelist]

Sounds like they can afford that new coaster for next year 

[mhguy77]

The say a fortune only lasts 2 generations.   
I wonder if the rest of the family has the love for the parks.

[Junior, too!]

Generation two is my age....50ish, I went to high school with Bruce, who operates Talking Rocks and Butterfly Palace, and Gen II has kids and grandkids now. That will be splitting Dollars many times. By the way, the funds for park expansion don't come from the personal bank accounts, but the business accounts. Current management has to keep everything in the black, or no new projects. However, not a problem there, I think! Ha!

[thelarsonsix]

My thoughts are more on how there person wealth is derived and how much they are attached to HFE. It's privately held I know, but I'm assuming they still have controlling shares or at least interest in the corporation. I'm guessing they get some sort of salary, dividends or both. And is that figure counting value of their assests? If so which are theirs and which are to corporations? I'm not saying any of this out of jealousy or wealth envy either, I am just truly curious as to how they actually "make" their money.

[shavethewhales]

$1.1 billion isn't surprising. DW has gotten huge and is turning into a mega-resort, SDC is pretty big, and WA isn't anything to sneeze at either, and that's just the theme parks. Ride-the-ducks, the globetrotters, Dixie Stampede, Showboat, Stone Mountain, two major aquariums, the SF cable cars... it all adds up quickly. Then you start thinking about all their profitable partnerships including those with Coke, Humana, Rudolph, etc. The occasional side ventures they take on such as Grand Village and CNL management contracts only add to the pile.

I'm not sure if some of the other side businesses within the family like the butterfly palace play into this or not, that might be controlled by a separate part of the family than what we're talking about here.

[runner1960]

Here is a link to the Forbes article that was written last year. All I can say is wow! 150 million in earnings on 400 million revenue. Thats 33% profit.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2014/05/07/the-wild-ride-of-the-herschends-when-amusement-parks-are-the-family-business/

[thelarsonsix]

That was an interesting article. I had no idea the Mels Hard Luck Diner owner used to be and HFE CEO.

[Gilligan]

I could live on that without too much struggle.