Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg business Week Inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance and tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio.
Harveryone.
Welcome to the Bloomberg Business Week Weekend podcast. Top of mind for US this week, the American consumer, US consumer confidence ease this month and a more muted outlook for business conditions. Walgreen slashed its fiscal year forecast, and jobless claims they rose to the highest since the end of twenty twenty one.
Okay, all that being said, Americans are still spending on their cruises. We check in with the CEO of Carnival after the company raised its full year earnings outlook, strong demand for cruises helping Carnival post a surprise profit last quarter, and.
Tim speaking of big ships.
Okay, Elon Musk is going to need one, a really big one for his own growing family. A deep dive into his obsession with population decline.
I think he can afford it.
You know what he wants.
He wants U all a lot more babies he does. Hey, it's not a V six or a V eight or even a V twelve. Okay, how about the four point one million dollar hybrid supercar with a V sixteen engine.
All right, all of that to come.
We begin with the wealthiest person in the world, at least depending on the day. He's up there, though, he has spent some four decades building up the house of arn and the clothes and accessories that signify status among the global elite. You know, brands that include, of course, Louis Lauton, Christian Duor Bulgary Celine, Fendi, Tiffany, and a few more.
He's not done, though, and with more. On the new monthly issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, we welcome in the editor Brad Stone. He's also the author of Amazon on Bound and The Everything Store. He Too, along with Bloomberg's Angelina ross Quett, wrote the cover story, now available on newstands on the Bloomberg terminal at Bloomberg dot com slash BusinessWeek.
Business Week is now a monthly magazine.
Right.
That's perhaps unusual, but it's one hundred year old brand that stands for examining the biggest companies and names in business, and we continue the tradition every day on Bloomberg dot com and now in the monthly magazine. This is a magazine that I think will surprise a lot of people. It looks different, it feels different, it's thicker, and our mission is to put a critical, significant force in business or tech, or politics or economics on the cover every
single month. And as you say, this month, it's Bernard Arnault. I did not know a lot about him before starting this journey, but as you say, one of the wealthiest people in the world two hundred and ten billion dollars has fallen a bit since the French parliamentary elections. I think he'll be just fine, but he's now the third wealthiest person in the world, and I think not very well understood.
Well, it's interesting that you mentioned elections because politics actually plays a big, a big part in his origin story. So just sort of get into that a little bit.
You know, it's interesting. He grew up in the north of France. His father ran their families manufacturing business, had a small real estate component. He you know, highly accomplished, went to the best engineering school in France, joined the family business, got his father to re orient towards real estate.
Moved to the US after the left one the French elections, and I think the late seventies or early eighties your testing my not knowledge here of French history, and really didn't do so well in the US, but woke up to the possibility of these small little luxury houses, often family owned Christian Dior Louis Buiton, that weren't really being run as businesses but were being more run as kind
of cultural artifacts. And he was very opportunistic bought the company that owned Christian Dior out of bankruptcy in the early eighties and has been on an acquisation tear ever since, buying companies sometimes through sort of leveraged buyout means, and assembling this huge empire.
Great story, though, I mean Tim and I have been talking about this offline, about Christian Dior and.
A New York cab driver.
Can you tell us a little bit about like that that helped him kind of think about Well.
He tells the story and you know what, it has moved into mythology or legend. But apparently when he was a college student in the US, he asked a cab driver at JFK, do you know the name of the French president and the cab driver did not know, but knew the name Christian Dior, and that, he says, sort of awakened him to the cultural residence of these brands. And when we think about names like Louis Vuitton, Bulgary Hennessy, Tiffany, which they recently acquired, you know, they it is interesting.
I mean, these are these are brands that have done extraordinarily well in China, you know, in a way that the Chinese luxury brands have never been able to do. And so he's tapped into something that I think is true about this lifestyle in European tradition.
Well, that's I want to go to China now, because when he went to China in the early nineties, he tells a story of what he saw there. It's a far cry from anyone who's been to one of the mega cities in China in this day and agent seeing one of the businesses that the company owns, perhaps on the famous street in Shanghai where all the luxury brands are. What did he see in China in the early nineties that gave him an indication that this is going to be a killer market.
Right, Well, we asked him about that, and in fact, I think the answer to that precise question was there was nothing. He was very skeptical. He said that one of his memories was that everybody was wearing mousuits, and you know, if you've got a luxury business and a fashion business, you're probably like, is this the right place for me? And also at the time, the Western brands were confined to hotels, so they were operating a louis uitan store at the bottom of the Palace, in the
basement of the Palace hotel. But obviously he has ridden and been aggressive in exploiting the rides of China and China joining the and not just China, but lots of countries in the in the Middle East and in Asia joining the global economy, the concurrent rise of an affluent class, and then the psychological need. It's so interesting of people who are newly rich to feel like they're part of that they're in distinct distinct from from their fellow countrymen.
They're part of a global affluent class that they feel special, and he's just tapped into that need and sold a lot of handbags.
I thought that was interesting too, that you got into like he understood the power of logos logos excuse me, luxury logos in particular, right, and really understood that kind of gave a marking to somebody who maybe was successful, but by having that logo kind of just cemented that position.
I think there was one point in the company's history where they were arguing that the Louis Vuitton monogram had ceased to be relevant. And you fast forward today. I visited Paris for the story, and next to the Louis Eiton flagship on the Chance of Lyse is a new structure that they're renovating. We don't know what it's going to be yet, and they've covered it in a sort of monogrammed facade, so it looks like a big Louis
Eton trunk. And the number of tourists who flocked to basically a building under construction to take pictures talks to the global resonance of these marks. And you couple that with the way in which he has exploited celebrity Pharrell Williams at Louis Euton, jay Z and Beyonce Tiffany go down the list. Rihanna started her own brand inside LVMH and the way you know celebrities flock to their shows.
There's a reciprocal relationship, the celebrities posting on their Instagram, bathing in this aura of opulence that ar Noah's created. It is about, yes, it's about the marks and the monograms, it's also about celebrity and a lifestyle that people aspire to.
He understands that, he understands social media.
He's not on social media though.
Right, It's funny. All the kids are, and they except for Delphine and the oldest daughter's not. The four other kids are, and and Juan, the oldest son, said, oh, he's on it and he monitors, but he's not posting. And they tried to get him on Twitter at one point before it was ex and he was apparently reluctant.
So you met him, tell us about the meeting and meeting him for the first time.
Well, this might surprise you, but he was better dressed than I.
Was.
Look, he it's exquisite, right, I mean the way he holds himself, the way he dresses. You know, he's very he to me, he was very French. I was probably very American, but he was generous enough to do the interview in French. My colleague Angelina Resquette and I interviewed him and just extor really patient. I got the sense that he enjoys talking about Like we were not there to press him on succession, on what the next company
he's going to buy. I mean, we break some interesting news about that in the story, but we really wanted to know, you know, give tell us, you know, share your stories, tell us how you built this business, how you think about operating seventy five disparate houses together, what
are the synergies. What was it like, you know, visiting China recently, where, in contrast to the first visit, throngs of people are out to see him and asking him to bless their babies, and so, you know, I feel like he got into it and had a good time with us, and then just sat for this extraordinary photo shoot with Reuven Affendor. Oh yes, yeah, and which you know makes for a really beautiful inaugural issue of the monthly BusinessWeek.
Okay, we'll talk about the succession element to this in a few minutes, but before we get there, I just want to learn a little more about his empire, the real estate portion of this, because yes, he's known for these luxury brands these luxury houses, but it's also a real estate company, that's right.
And another one of our colleagues, Natalie Wong on the real estate desk here at Bloomberg News, really helped us with this. I would say it probably started more modestly a decade or two ago, buying real estate in midtown Manhattan on Rodeo Drive in La LVMH has a separate arm,
sort of an investment arm, El Catherton. They did a lot of deals through that, and over the time it's gotten more and more aggressive, where they're now designing whole new shopping districts in cities like Miami, in Montreal where a whole new luxury district is underway with LVMH as the primary backer in Asia, and it just gives well, first of all, are no a number of ways to win, not just on the sales, not just on the rent to rival companies who take store space, but on the
underlying appreciation of the asset. It's it's an extraordinary amount of power because you know, we talk to rivals who say, you know, if you if you're in the prime spot and LVMH wants it, you know, maybe they're the landlord and you say goodbye because they're going to take the space from you, or the real the landlord is so intimidated by LVMH and it's power that they force you to leave. And then we asked our no, like do you have too much power? And you know his response
is hilarious. It's along the lines of, well, if they're complaining, they're not very well managed, so he's got no sympathy. And but this is a company. You know, we talk about the advantages of the tech platforms and the power
that they have to cast winners and losers. And I thought with this story, I was writing about the opposite a figure and a company that has a mass business power in another way, but I think it's sort of I think the real estate is the platform, and they own the platform, and they pick winners and losers and can anoint themselves by giving themselves the primary location, perhaps you know, discounts on rent, or it's just like the muscle to go and say, you know, the corner of
Fifth Avenue in fifty seventh is the luxury capital.
Of the world.
They own three of the four corners.
Now pretty amazing, it's pretty well. So you talk about that power, right, in terms of this you know, boutique of brands, if you will. And I just wonder if regulators though think, okay, there's too much power. Is that a risk at all as he continues to buy more and more brands?
I don't, you know, I don't think so. There's you know, we highlight some deals that are now being looked at in the US. They're not LVMH deals, but different different sectors of luxury. But you know, it's a different set of regulators. There might soon be a different government in France. I probably don't know enough. I mean, I would sort of speculate that they would face more problems from a leftist government than a rightist right and that does assume
the direction that France is drifting in now. But you know, one of the nice tantalizing tidbits of at the end of our story is that he has acquired a personal stake in Richmont, which is the owner of Cartier and some other brands. And you know, he says he wants to maintain its independence. But this is how it starts with him, how he went after Arimez and Gucci famously that you know he is not even though he's seventy five years old, done with his empire building.
The Wolf in Kashmir is how some inside luxury circles have referred to him. You write about him laying off thousands of people after acquisitions. What's his reputation within the industry.
Yeah, I would say, well, first of all, the layoffs, that was early on, when you know he was acquiring some of these brands as part of like der larger companies with a lot of inefficiencies and pairing now to just the luxury acid sets. The Wolf in Kashmir was a phrase started by I think folks at Gucci and then later at Ermez and the way in which he
uses leverage byout techniques to go acquire assets. I think he's viewed as as an intimidating figure who brings some pretty ruthless takeover tactics and business tactics to the world of luxury. But I think there's also a lot of admiration and respect for what he has achieved. I think at one point maybe there was a cold review of him, but how can you not admire right now, and particularly now that he's been a major philanthropic force in France
and he's sponsoring the Olympics. There's probably more of a halo now than there ever has been.
Just last question, what do you think people might be surprised about him in your coverage of him? In the reporting that might be surprised to find out? I know we covered a lot of ground.
Look, I mean, if you're a follower of this world, there's some stuff in here that will surprise you. If you're not a follow, if you're even a sort of quasi business informed person, you might think that Bernard Arnau is married to Selma Hayek. He is not exactly. That is one of his rivals, right, and so I think, and but a surprising number of people have some of those you know, impressions and so and his wife is
a concert pianist, extraordinarily impressive, impressive. So to understand who he is, his five children, who all work in the business, are also accomplished, and to understand how he has built this empire and the ways in which he now leverages his power, I think is going to surprise a lot of people.
Brad, we lied one more question because you mentioned the children. I promised we talked about succession, five kids very briefly. Who should we be watching yeah.
I mean all of them, right, because they're all they're all remarkable. You know, Delphine who runs deor is the is the only daughter, the oldest daughter. She is the sole descendant on the executive operating Committee of LVMH. So I think you'd have to say like she's got you know, she's probably if we're gonna talk about it in a race, and I don't know that they do, she would be the natural. But the way in which his youngest Jean
and Frederic are are getting increasing authority. Alexander, who now is CO runs Tiffany and Co. And then Antoine who runs who is a non executive chairman of Laura Piano and runs all the image and communication for the company. They all have their pieces and and my impression, by the way in closing is that you know, like people we know well. Even though mister Arnault is of advanced stage, he has no intention of stepping back. He is in it for the long haul.
And if you're playing tennis with him, do mention that rival because it might give you a little bit of an advantage. Anyway, reaches st do not wear nikes in this store. Incredible Broadstone, Congratulations the new launch of Bloomberg Business Week, now a monthly brought of course the editor of Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg business Week now on newsstands, on line, and of course always on the Bloomberg terminal.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from two to five pm. Easter Listen on Apple Cardplay and then brout Auto with a Bloomberg Business act or watch us live on YouTube.
All right, now to an individual who is often the subject of a BusinessWeek story, including recently, we're talking about Elon Musk, and to some numbers you should know about Elon.
Okay, six it's the number of companies Elon runs, two hundred and sixteen. It's the number of billions of dollars Elon is worth as of our taping, at least according to the latest calculation by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And twelve it's the number of kids that Elon has at least that we know of. No question Elon doing what he can do to contribute to the population, which makes sense if you've paid attention to what he said in recent years.
Well, I got to tell you, I'm one of seven, So my parents certainly did their jobs well. In Musk's mind, global for two rates are not just a crisis, but the crisis. In twenty twenty two, he tweeted that quote, A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.
For more, we turn to Dana Hole, Bloomberg News senior technology reporter.
He's been sort of ringing the alarm bell about this for quite some time. If you look at his tweets and all of his public appearances at the Milkene conference, you know, he really sees this as a big crisis. And I think it has a lot to do with the changing demography of the United States and frankly, his like interest in colonizing Mars, and you know, he's looking at trends and his own goals, and you know, he really is encouraging people to have at least three children.
But I think that the sort of deeper thing here is that he's not just tweeting about this on x the platform that he owns. He's really putting money behind it.
I would say, as a recent father, if he wants people to have more kids, he should talk to the folks in Washington about child care costs and the difficulty in raising the kids.
Says the father of two young kids.
I'm serious though, I mean, if if he wants people to have at least three, there's a reason why people don't have as many kids as they used to.
It's expensive.
It's very expensive.
You know, there are a lot of reasons why the fertility rate has fallen. Women are having children later in life. It is incredibly expensive. We don't have the nuclear families we used to. People are thinking about things like just the cost of childcare and the cost of college, and the cost of just living and the cost of housing. And there's a lot of reasons why in a lot of industrialized countries, not just the United States, but in Scandinavia and Japan and South Korea and elsewhere, that the
fertility rate has fallen. But you know, there's a lot of policy levers that you can push if you want to encourage families. And you know, instead, Elon has quietly donated ten million dollars to the University of Texas at Austin, his largest donation to higher education to date. And he's also funding a documentary film that'll feature like the professor that he's funding. And so it's just super curious to me.
How on the one hand, you know, eli On is very public about his intentions, and yet seeing him get involved in academia this way is sort of a new realm for him.
Well, that's why I wanted to ask you, Dana, I was listening to you.
You know, is Elon mostly talking his book here, you know, about wanting to you know, develop mars and all that good stuff. What do the academics say when it comes to what's going on with fertility rates and perhaps populations more broadly, what does academia who study this actually say about what the.
Problem is or no lack thereof.
Yeah, so the field of demography is a super fascinating one. And my colleague Sophia Alexander really did a heroic job like talking to all the experts here, and they are very worried that Musk and his megaphone and his money are kind of now influencing the debate, if you will, within the field about just how serious this crisis is.
I mean, you know, there are is Simultaneously we're seeing a lot of talk about no fault divorce and abortion rights, and we're seeing like women's reproductive freedom being skilled back in State after state. So there's just a lot of history here. Is that is very concerning for people that have been in the field for a long time.
I think one important part of the conversation, at least here in the US that Carol and I have talked about Dana is even though Americans are not having as many kids as they used to, a lot of the jobs that need to be filled are being filled by immigrants right now. And that's really important when you talk about the economic context here in terms of population growth and aging population and who's actually doing jobs?
Oh absolutely, I mean who is growing the food in the United States, who is working in our meat packing facilities, who is taking care of your elderly parent. I mean, so when you talk about declining birth rates and fertility rates, you have to if you look at the world population as a whole, to be clear, like we are still we are still seeing population growth. You know, there are
different projections, and projections are often wrong. I mean, you know, we know that people have fewer children during the recession. So what's actually happening now is that there were fewer babies born in like two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, when we were in the depths of the last recession in the United States. Now all those kids are about to graduate from high school and you're seeing like a drop off in college enrollment.
So I mean, there are rare, definitely real world impacts to population changes. But when you include immigration and you include the world as a whole and not just the West, you know, we are still on track to be growing people. That is a fact. And so it's just very interesting to sort of look at how, you know, this kind of fringe movement called natalism has increasingly entered the mainstream.
Dana, does the world at large? Does the Bloomberg audience kind of need to keep the head of PWI Dean Spears.
The Population Well Being Initiative exactly?
Do they need to keep him on their radar?
Yes, he's coming out with a book in the Fall by Simon and Schuster, six figure advance. I mean, it's called After the Spike. It's kind of, you know, it'll be like a mainstream book kind of espousing. I think a lot of what is in aligne with with musks thinking that we need to really be paying attention to fertility trends, and I think it's just important you know too. You know, billionaires have a lot of ways to spend their money. Musk has a foundation. You know, his foundation
is now donating to academia. I think that that's really significant and something that investors and customers and people in general should be watching.
And it also said that one of his right is researchers are going to be joining I think President Biden's counsel of Economic Advisors, right, So, yeah, it's kind of spreading out.
But Dan, and this is also a story about Elon's businesses because he has had kids with people at his at at least one of his companies in the past. So we should note that even though we're talking about what could be his personal views that he's increasingly talking about on on X and on podcasts, he's this is coming out and in the work that he does too.
Yeah, I mean, and there are a lot of you know, I mean, to be clear, these are consent take adults. But like one of them is currently like his employee. I mean, she's an executive at Neuralink. And so you know, obviously a couple of years ago, Business Insider broke the news that Musk and chevon zillis the executive at Neuralink had twins together. They also had they had they had another another child that was previously unreported. So this is
definitely like a pattern of his. It's just sort of unheard of, uh, that you would have that going on, I think, in most quarters. But it's it's a pattern that's been established and it seems to be continuing.
Well.
It's an incredible story, and I think a really smart one and just kind of getting into it and explaining it and doing the research and giving us the facts, certainly when it comes to fertility and what's going on.
Glos also has Carol reminded me some incredible animations on the terminals that actually made me.
Kind of laugh.
Check it out, everyone, Dana, have a great weekend. Bloomberg News Senior Tech reporter Dana Halt.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on applecar Play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business Ad. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa. Playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Earning season in all its glory doesn't kick off for another few weeks, and yet thanks to quarterly earnings from one big player in the hospitality and leisure space this past week, we've got a pretty good read on what's up with the US consumer.
Carnival raised its full year earnings outlook after strong demand for cruises helped it post a surprise profit last quarter. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization will be about five point eight three billion this year. It's up from Carnival's March forecast of about five point six three billion dollars and above the average analyst projection of five point seven billion.
Record setting demand is helping cruise companies sell tickets at higher prices, partly driven by the value of sailings versus land based travel, helping to attract new customers. That trend appears to be extending into twenty twenty five, with Carnival's booked position for next year already ahead of twenty twenty four levels on both occupancy and ticket prices.
Carnival turned just as second profit since twenty twenty in the second quarter, reporting eleven cents a share against an expected two cent a share loss. Sales also beat Wall Street's forecast s and p upgraded Carnival's debt rating to double B after the results, leaving it now just two notches away from investment grade. The stock having a big bounce recently. I'm nearly twenty percent. We got more from Josh Weinstein, President and CEO and chief Climate Officer of Carnival.
We just wrapped up our second quarter and we were able to report record revenues, record deal record for dums, record even, and record operating income. So that that was a really big quarter for us. And the best news about it is that was the actual results.
But from a bookings momentum standpoint.
As you were saying, the bookings that we took in just in the second quarter actually set another record, and it was a record for the most bookings we ever took for the full year out So in this case, twenty twenty five, so as Stellar is, twenty twenty four is looking when it comes to the demand profile and the booking trends, twenty twenty five is already shaping up to be even better.
So you can like pack up your bags go home for a year. No, I'm just kidding. Hey, talk to us about.
Your lung cruise.
Go on to your luck cruise.
Hey, how broad based? Is it like, break it down for us. You guys have several brands and I know about a year ago you did a restructuring when it comes to those brands, But how broad based is it in terms of customer segment and geography.
Yeah, the great thing is that it is exactly that it is broad based.
So we're seeing strength from both our North our North American brand and our European brands. You know, to put that into perspective the past quarter, the second quarter.
Because we're a portabole theer on bold class brands.
You know, brands are coming in and out of different economic cycles.
Different geopolitical issues.
And whereas a couple of years ago we were talking about our European brands just taking a little while longer to chuck in, our North American brands coming out of our pause, in the second quarter of this year, their yields were up over twenty percent year over year.
And so we're getting this.
Momentum across the Atlantic and from all segments thea contemporary via premium via luxury. We're really seeing strengthen what we have to offer, which Kendally isn't surprising to us, because first of all, as we've talked about before.
We are an incredible value.
So even though we've been successful and really pushing on that demand and getting our pricing up, we are still an incredible value versus alternatives. And not only are we an incredible value when you look at our alternatives, the service levels that we provide are unmatched and they're just as good as there were from before the pandemic, which is not something that a lot of hospitality outfits can say.
I'm wondering about the trends that you're seeing when it comes to on board spending excursions. Are there any signs of lower spending once consumers are on board? Are there any signs of weakness that you're seeing anywhere?
Excuse me, no, not particularly you know in the in the second quarter, our onboards were up about four percent per deems year over year, and as you know, last year was called incredibly over the pree pandemic period. So you know, the trends that we look at to understand the strength of our consumer. We've got the results, we've got the onboard spending in real time, we've got the bookings, and all of those metrics for us are telling us
that our consumers are incredibly strong. We've got incredibly strong brands that really resonate with the segments that we're going after, and people are absolutely still willing to spend on experiences, and that is exactly what we offered, great experiences to create memories and happiness for a lifetime.
Hey, Josh, one of the numbers that struck me to is your total customer deposits reached an all time high a point three billion. That's our passed the previous record by over a billion dollars one point one billion, to be exact. Does all of that turn into avenue that shows up ultimately on the balance sheet? In other words, are there cancelations that can happen? What do you see around that?
Yeah, there are cancelations that can happen, but the vast majority of that is going to come through ultimately in revenues. So that's a bit of a board indicator of how we're doing. And that increase is really a combination of increased pricing, us elongating the booking curves, of taking bookings.
Even farther out than we had even just a year ago. And you know, we're doing a better job.
Of bundling our offerings so that people can spend in advance of the cruise, not just for the ticket price, but certain on board experiences. So it's a combination of those things that we've been very focused on that are attributing to that increasing customer.
Well, that's something we've talked about, right, all of the bundling that happens before they even step on a ship, and that ultimately can lead to more spending because that thinking of I've already paid for everything, right you get on ship and you're like, wait, I can still spend Like that really works.
It does really work. It does really work.
I mean a good it's a good amount of time that goes between the initial purchase impulse and then getting on board. So having what we'd refer to as a second walllet available is real. And actually, folks who buy something of onboard spending before they get on the ship, they spend more on board than those who don't do anything in advance.
So it's a it's a very strong opportunity.
Okay, Josh, I'm wondering about pricing pressures that you may be facing at the company. You're you're talking about consumers who are out there spending that's certainly strong. What about what you have pressure. Where you have pressure food prices, labor costs, fuel costs. What are you seeing on that front?
Yeah, you know.
I mean good news is there's been the deceleration of inflation. We don't see his inflation, but we certainly see a deceleration, which is which is encouraging. I think if you look at our P and L, you'll see on the on the crew labor side, our teams are doing a real good job of trying to be mind blow of the P and L and certainly pay a good living to people, but put doing so efficiently. The biggest thing that we see a change from free pandemic times to now, it's probably.
You know, that combination of two of the things that you said, food and fuel.
Those are inherently more expensive, and we're doing our best because because those are always going to be inputs into our business.
We are laser focused.
On reducing consumption because no matter what the price is, if we use less, we will be better off. And so I'll give you I'll give you two examples. On the food side, we are looking every which way.
We can to cut the amount of food we.
Put on, more cut consumption, to be more mindful of the fact that we've got a lot of food waste in any give, we've actually because we put this focus onto it, we've been able to cut our food waste by over forty percent per.
Person per day versus where we were before the pandemic. And that's that is.
Because we are giving so much thought to reducing the whole consumption cycle while still giving guests every thing they want, which just being more thoughtful about.
How we do that.
And on the fuel side, you know, not only is it good for the environment, it's good for the bottom line.
And even though we are over thirty percent bigger.
Today than we were in twenty eleven, we actually consume ten percent less absolute fuel than we did back in twenty eleven. We admit over ten percent the less absolute terms greenhouse gas submissions than we did back in twenty eleven. So by being laser focused on that, not only can we be good you know, world citizens, we can make a huge impact.
On our bottom line.
Hey, speaking of being laser focused, you shu guys still have I think, roughly I was looking at the Bloomberg maybe around thirty billion of debts still on your balance sheet. I think four point one billion maturing by year end. How am I the bookings and the outperformance there maybe power help with debt reduction, Like, what's your plans on that?
Yeah?
Absolutely, that is when it comes our capital structure and priority one, two and three is reducing that debt balance.
We've actually reduced it.
By eight billions versus our peak, which is great. I predict we've probably got another billion or so to go as we get through the remainder of this year. That should get us the leverage metrics heading towards about four and a half turns, which is a big in roads
versus where we were just a couple of years ago. Now, what we see as a plan going forward is, in addition to the fact that our increased EBITDA and better business is going to help our metrics and help the shape of our balance sheet, we have intentionally reduced our supply our pipeline of new builds in the.
Medium term, and so we're looking at.
A profile with only one new build coming in twenty twenty five, none in twenty six, and then one in each of twenty seven and twenty eight. What that does it will allow six billions of dollars of free cash flow each year for the next several years to.
Pay down debt. And that's exactly where we're focused.
You know, treasure for ten years that we were in ami stuff, and I know the power of having a fortress balancing.
Hey, Josh, I don't want to believer the point here, but we're hearing over and over again from people not like you that they're starting to see some cracks form in the consumer. We're seeing some price wars happening in fast food right now. For example. Are you seeing weakness anywhere in your business or anywhere in the consumers that you deal with, you know.
At at a general level, No, no, we're not. We see the demand profiles incredibly high. And I attribute that not just to the value gap, not just.
That we're getting better at what we're doing. But if you think about.
It, just put yourself in the minds of a consumer. They are stretched. If they are looking to figure out how do I make my vacation dollar go further? That is playing into what we have to offer because we are the bottom line where cheaper alternative and lots of other things that they can choose to do, and they're seeing the value of that.
They have friends, they have family, who have taken.
How is with a maconn all right on our behalf Josh, so appreciate it.
Have a great summer, Josh Weinstein.
He's President and ce of Carnival Corporation, joining us there from their headquarters in Miami.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on Apple car Play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station Just Say Alexa, playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Play ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including trading a job on a London trading desk for one as a whiskey distiller, will reintroduce you to the founder of Natterjack Irish whiskey whose happy accident to an innovative new blend.
Plus the really really expensive Bugatti supercar that's also a hybrid, the CEO Breakfast Diet, and the former long run Broadway show Cats gets another life courtesy of Wild Costumes. It's all ahead in Bloomberg Pursuits.
First up this hour, we begin with music and entertainment. The Las Vegas residency and extended run of concerts by a single artist has never been hotter. On any given week, fans can choose from an array of shows that might include a Dell with a string section at the Caesars Coliseum, Lady Gaga performing jazz standards on a piano at Park MGM, or Carrie Underwood belting out her country hits at Resorts World.
Oh yeah, and then there's the sphere with you Two Fish and Dead and Company taking up residencies.
It wasn't always this way Las Vegas, at least, in the words of one Las Vegas historian quote, was the place old performers go to die out. Bloomberg News entertainment reporter Chris Paul Mary writes all about the Las Vegas residency history and the latest issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine, also on the Bloomberg Terminal and at Bloomberg dot com
slash BusinessWeek. So to understand how it got to be this way, We've got to go back in history from the days of Elvis and another surprising artist.
It starts with Liberachi, believe it or not, who was a big star on TV and he was loured to Vegas a fifty thousand dollars a week contract. This is in nineteen fifty five. Wow, and and and just you know, makes it a thing to play there five nights a week. And that really establishes this idea of the star in residency playing one place. You want to see him, you go to Vegas. It's it's a you know, it's a big thing. And then of course you hit the tables afterwards.
And it inspired Elvis, who bombed in his first Vegas experience with a big band a comedian and but but studied Liberaci and his showmanship and his outfits and and came up with his own Vegas version, which of course we all remember. And you know, the rat pack was you know, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, they were a residency in the sixties. And then you kick it to kind of the modern editor of Celine Dion and the two thousands she opened the Caesars Coliseum. That was a
huge deal, one hundred million dollars. That really opened the door for all kinds of folks life share and Elvis and now we cut to adel and the old idea that yeah, the Vegas is where these sort of old stars went, is no more.
Well, it's so wild. I mean I was thinking about this, Chris, I.
Mean, how much is it kind of the evolution of Vegas as a place to have great food, go see great shows, like really experience a lot of pretty cool things in kind of a relatively small area.
How much of is it?
Two performers just tired of going on the road, and they're like, let me do this gig for a while, make a bunch of money, and then be done. But I don't have to like get in my tour bus, I don't have to get on planes. Like it's I'm just curious how it's all hard together.
Some of them have bought homes in Vegas too, and sort of settled down. You know, we got started in this because, as you mentioned, Vegas always reinvents itself. In the Sphere, which opened in September with a residency, if you two really just set a new bar for entertainment. A lot of people were skeptical about what was going to happen there, but it's just so mind blowing the experience of the video indoors and out on the entire theater, and so that sort of was like, well, this, this
is sort of the new version of the residency. He got us thinking about that, and then I was surprised, actually it, being a long time concert goer, that this actually translates into Vegas having the highest average ticket price.
I was shocked to see the country.
Yeah, yeah, okay, so well, a couples one hundred and seventy six on average. It's a lot of money.
Yeah, it's no Taylor Swift, but you know, you know, that's one thing that's always struck me about Vegas is everywhere and I've been there many many times, mostly for work, but one thing that I'm struck the right. Yeah, everything was there and cs every year, But what always strikes me is the way that people throw money around in Vegas.
It's like it's like this fantasy world because the people who are throwing money around, you know, they're not throwing money around like that every day when they're at home. And I'm wondering what it is about Las Vegas that can attract such high ticket prices.
Well, that's number one. People are going there, forty million people last year going there to have fun. You know, you're not going there to visit relatives. For the most part, You're not, you know, I mean it is you are cutting loose, and sometimes you're cutting loose with a corporate credit card too, like you mentioned going to a conference of some kind. So the city is designed really for that.
So if you're not going to gamble, you're going to eat, you're going to see a show shop, you're spending money. The other thing is that these residencies tend to be smaller theaters. Some of the acts we really featured Christina Aguilera. You know, she's somebody who could play big Arenas. She's playing at a thousand seat theater at the Venetian, which was configured to kind of be like a Parisian nightclub,
and it's got mostly tables seating. In addition to a you know, pretty high ticket price, you're also got a food and beverage minimum two hundred and fifty a person, which sounds like a lot until you try to until you sit down in a nightclub in Vegas, and it's just play money at that point. And so that's the experience she's going for. She told us, you know, everyone could feel like a VIP and people are buying it.
Yeah, Vegas is the place where the ATM is only spit out hundred dollars bills. You know, you can't choose twenties.
The size and scope, Yeah, her perspective.
No signs of anything slowing down in terms of these types of performers coming there and and you know, more residencies to come essentially.
Yeah, no, it certainly seems that way. People are lining up to get into the sphere. You know, the city talked about his first hip hop residency this year. We have, you know, still a huge artist, Lady Gaga del And the next thing we know we asked around about seems to be you're familiar with the Abbess show in London, the avatars avatars sorry, and you know it's probably going to be something along those lines. Maybe it'll be kiss who knows, but yeah, so, and that's you're right. The
city reinvents itself. There was circus La for a while. Now it seems sports and residencies.
Very cool stuff.
Chris, Paul, Mary, thank you so much. Really fun to check in with you about the story. Bloomberg News Entertainment editor. Check out a story at Boomberg dot com and also on the Bloomberg terminal.
You're listening and watching Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern. Listen on Apple, Cardplay and and Broight Auto with a Bloomberg Business app, or watch us live on YouTube.
All right, Tim, here's pop quiz for you. What do you Enrique Iglesias, Lake Shelton, the rapper Future and the rapper and producer Logic all have in common?
Dontin they make music good? They have Las Vegas residency.
No, no, come on, you know this one.
Okay.
They've all sold their catalogs.
Oh yeah, I wrote that, so I should know that.
Sorry, guys, we tried to make this work or stakes in their catalogs they have sold to Influence Media Partners, a seven hundred and fifty million dollar fund backed by Warner Music and Black Rock that invests in music IP intellectual property.
It's been a growing trend for musicians lately to cash out on their work. For the companies purchasing the catalogs, it may be worth the investment for more. We were joined by the founder and co managing partner of Influence Media Partners, Lolette Pizarro.
This has been probably the healthiest we've seen in the last few years in single artist acquisition opportunity. What's gotten really interesting about the market for us at Influence is that artists really do care about partnership, and I has become a very vibrant space.
Name image and likeness is what you're referring to.
Name, image and likeness.
And you know, when I wrote this strategy a few years ago, I wasn't quite sure if the active artists, an artist who has a manager, an agent, a really you know, significant bench of talent would allow us to invest in their name, image and likeness rights.
Well, help us understand name, image and likeness when it comes to these artists, because we talk a lot about it in the context over the last few years of athletes in college who are now able to license their name, image and likeness. How does it work in the musician space in the artist space.
Everyone has a different approach around how they manage name, image and likeness rights. I can tell you what we do at Influence as it relates to Influence. We approach it as an opportunity to invest in.
A specific vertical of rights.
So we look and we speak to we learn, We do insights works around how the artist has commercialized their name, image and likeness rights historically and what might be a white space, So it could be wellness or hospitality, or film and television, or an area that they haven't really explored but there's interest in exploring, and we'll approach it around taking a position on those rights exclusively.
Isn't that kind of what an agent does.
We partner with the agents very often, so I would say we look more like a marketing agent, which is more classic in sports and doesn't exist in music, and I feel like that's the white space that influence is really owning. So a marketing agent who will work in tandem with the television and commercial agent and the touring agent.
But we're specifically focused on bringing new marketing opportunities to artists, and on a very specific basis, we also work with artists on non exclusive rights as it relates to name, image and likeness. But the proposition, given the type of talent that exists and influence and the type of marketing DNA that we're bringing in, it's become a very compelling proposition to talent in which now we're being approached just on name, image and likeness opportunity outside of catalog investments.
That's what I was going to ask you, are there times where a performer says, yeah, we're going to hold on to our music, but can you help us with the other Can you help us with the name, image and likeness side of the business.
Yeah, it just started to happen.
It's you know, we're in early days of you know, influence. We're very much a startup, but it's so exciting and promising to see artists respond this way, see the opportunity and want to lean in on what we're proposing, our ambition and our strategy. I will tell you, Carol that our marketing, our marketing pipeline is just important to us
as our acquisition pipeline. We really believe that if you're investing in IP, the best way to protect IP is to constantly drive rediscovery of that IP and make sure that it's at the forefront and there's ways to consistently re engage with fans and audience, and that is at the heart of our proposition.
It's a seven hundred and fifty million dollar fund, it's backed by Warner Music in Black Rock. What can you tell us about fund returns over the last couple of years.
So we've done very well. I mean investing in music royalties. As you guys know, it's an alternative investment class. But we've been performing a little bit better than I think the market would say that these royalties or investment in music whereights perform. And part of it is because one,
we're highly focused on our value chain proposition. So from sourcing, we really look at, you know, making sure that the seller, so whether it's an artist or songwriter or an entrepreneur, truly cares about partnership and wants to lean in on value creation and marketing opportunities.
So it makes what influence invests in a little bit different than the balance.
Of the market. R What can you tell us about like expected returns though when someone comes to you as it's an alternative asset, as you mentioned, it's alternative investor, think what the market.
Has said about these returns is that they are low to mid teen returns, and influences work better than mid teen's returns.
All right, Just trying to get an idea of like kind of where it fits right. You know, we talk a lot about alt investing, so it's just trying to get an idea of exactly kind of where it kind
of slots in in the investment space. Having said that, I don't know, like, how big can it be for you guys, You know, to mention how much you guys, you've got a seven hundred and fifty million dollar fun already already six hundred million in Are you getting new investor money coming in to either do a second fund or build out this fund?
Yeah, So our investors are really happy with our performance and our returning to our next vehicle. I think the question always is what's the appropriate scale for this investment class, and we're working to define that as well. Look, we see ourselves as a premium rights holder of premium music rights, and so we also very much care about having the
opportunity to partner and actively manage. And I think we've identified our space in the sub early billions of opportunity for the future, so, you know, potentially a two to three billion dollar vehicle. I know that there are other buyers in the space who have far larger ambitions, but right now, that's how we see the opportunity at Influence.
You know, there was a period until about twenty twenty two we were talking about this all the time. Kenny Chesney, Leonard Cohen, Justin Timberlake. Those were catalogs applied by Hypnosis and Blackstone, John Legend, Bruce Springsteen's TBNX, Bob Dylan. They've struck deals with other firms. Has the idea of selling a catalog slowed down at all? In a higher rate environment.
There has been just as much activity in terms of acquisition, and there has been just as much activity in terms of new entrants backed by institutional investors. But what has shifted is the actual announcement activity. And I've been looking and studying that. Even as us as influence, we've only announced twenty five percent of our acquisitions.
Interesting, I was wondering about that because I saw the numbers versus who you've announced. But you know, you say there's more people out there to do the acquisitions, the more institutional money, doesn't that make it more expensive for you? We only have thirty seconds left. But if there's more places for these artists to sell, doesn't it increase competition?
Yeah, looks competition continues to get more and more competitive around music rights. So what's critically important is understanding your proposition around value creation, being able to have deep trust in the space.
You know, sourcing truly matter.
So proprietary sourcing or limited opportunity matters and gives you a.
Bit of an advantage.
So yes, as it continues to get more competitive, being able to be thoughtful across the value chain is critical.
Listen, really appreciated eving so real and transparent. Really fun to talk with you. I'll Lette, take care and look forward to hearing more in the future. Luette Pizarro. She's a founder and co managing partner of Influenced Media Partners. Joining us right here in New York City.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on Apple car Play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
All right, everybody, there is Scotch, whiskey, US whiskey, Canadian whiskey, Japanese whiskey, blended Tennessee whiskey, single malt, and more.
I didn't know that.
That's I have to tell you. All I know is I like a good whiskey sour. That's all I know.
The global market for whiskeys is valued at approximately one hundred and forty billion dollars according to Euromonitor International. Our next guest last stop by on Saint Patti's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, and shared his story and shared some whiskey.
Back with an update and how a recent mistake actually turned into an opportunity, is Aiden Megan, founder of Natterjack Irish Whiskey.
Look, we've been traveling to anyone who will have us to go and promote the whiskey. We're now in fourteen states in the US, we'll be in twenty by the end of the year, and then with a bit of a tail wind twenty five by Saint Patrick's say, and we opened up New England. So it's been just been incredible. The reception to the whiskey has been great, and we got national national distribution through Total Wine and More, which was massive because we won Irish Whiskey the Year for
twenty twenty four. Those recognitions are important, are yeah, yeah, and the previous winners are like the massive, like the twenty twenty two bottle. That one is a thirty year old Irish whiskey and it's two and a half round a bottle. Ours is eighty. So you talk about value and everyone knows value or it doesn't matter who you are. So it was really just an incredible award and it was really well taken. It opened up these kind of chains, and we've just opened up a big chain in Texas
as well. I think we've got a good story, but people are like can I buy it? And it's really it's really frustrating when you're like, well there's local liquor store on sixth then and you're just like, that's not a compelling story. So so this is this change this year.
It's been amazing.
So talk about that process of going state to state here, because I think a lot of people who've lived in different states might understand that local and state liquor liquor laws very drastically across borders. Absolutely, So it's like it's really tough on a distribution level, especially if you're a small independent player to succeed here. How do you do it?
So you partner with In our case, I can't even speak to our case because we're not with one of the big distributors, with individual distributors in each in each market. So what we do is we go we educate them we incentivize them to to incentivize them by bring them along in the journey, right, So meet them, spend time with them, spend time in market with them, telling the story so that they can then effectively tell the story as well.
That's a slow process.
Oh, it is absolutely.
I think I was home two days in May, so you're on the road. It's it is pound the pavement. But that's actually what we've got to do. But then you add to the team, right, So we're now up to we have eight reps, We've a national sales director, we're just about to hire a national marketing director. We've got three people in Ireland. So it's a lot of penning in the pavement. But as you scale, you then you get them to tell the story and they can educate people.
And I want to get to the story. But I do feel like it's a moment in time, or has been for years that in the liquor market, the alcohol market overall, that upstarts newcomers can really find a niche for themselves that people are interested. I think consumers are looking for different choices.
They are they're looking for authenticity as well, right, And I think at the larger brand level that authenticity doesn't speak to someone who's who's into the process or into starting a business or those sorts of things that they struggle with that.
So so for for a.
Brand like ours, yeah, it's an amazing time to be able to actually go and meet the people and tell them our story.
Talk to us though about your story, remind our world.
So yeah, I was an equity trader hedge fund back in in twenty fifteen. I think was when I kind of had the moment. I was like, look, is this everything that I want to do with my life?
Like I loved it.
I think I was okay at it, like a decent career, but I was like I wanted to build something.
I wanted to build a business.
Now I was running the business with my partners and that sort of stuff, but I was like, this is the time for me to go do that, right. I had no real responsibilities at a house. I sold the house and moved back in with my parents, which they were very good to take me in for a couple of years.
And how is your seed money?
That was it?
Yeah, I sold the house and that was just like how much is this going to take? It turns out it took a lot more time and lot more money than I ever fathomed. But then we got outside investment, and our investors are based out of a Michigan And so the first thing I had to do is I had to build a team. So I found Jordan Via whose artist Doller. I found a team of industry guys to help me because I had no idea.
What I was doing, and in some ways I still how.
Did you do that?
Or is that just the trader mentality? I don't know, Let's figure out.
To figure it out on the go, right, So I built I found actually my first business plan recently. It's dreadful like it issolutely horrific. So you go and you you learn, right, And so the business plans that they as they as it grew, it kind of became its
own kind of thing. And then what I didn't want to do was what a lot of my peers had done, which is released of vodka origin, and that was that's that What I did know, what I wanted to do was clearly, yeah, you and I could have a gin in twelve hours, so it could.
Get a bath. Tim and Aiden's gin boom.
Right.
So so when Tim's not doing over the regat, so.
I needed to so, but I wanted to do whiskey, So then we need to source whiskey. But this is back in twenty fifteen sixteen, that wasn't much available from a sourcing perspective. So I got you know, I got offered two thousand meters of eight year old double still, and I was like, I could buy that. Now I've got the capital and we can take it to market. But what happens then if it's a success, I can't.
Get any more of it.
So then that was all that was available contract. Yeah, yeah, So I learned that, you know, I learned that I wanted a plan for scale, that we wanted to go for something that could really take off, and if it takes off, that there's not so many breaks on it. Because what I didn't want is to have a huge success and be like, Okay, you can have some more in five years when everyone's forgotten about it and you
sit around going bankrupt. So so I really we held off and held off until we could get that proper supply contract that would allow us to grow. And we've now secured five years worth of what we need for the growth trajectory that we're on. So it's been amazing, but that meant we had to push it back a year, and that's a year. Don't forget me and my parents' basement. They're like, what are you doing.
I'm like, well, I'm like.
Are you not being judges?
Thirty five?
It's like, that's what parents are for. They take in when they need.
It well exactly.
And then but then I met my wife and I was like, yeah, I need to move back.
Yes, is going to go back to the parents.
Hey, but she loved you.
Then yeah, it's a big thing exactly exactly.
But you also to deal with the pandemic.
Yeah, yeah, And that was that put us into a kind of a tail spin. Right, So we had initial investors who weren't happy with how it goes. And the weird thing about the pandemic is Perna, Rickard and Diaghi the big companies, we're doing really well because they own every heart of the shelf.
So if you wanted a twenty.
Dollars or one hundred and twenty dollars bottle that were two hundred two two thousand dollars, they own everything. We had one skew right, so it's like who's taking a punt? On fifty eurobottle of whiskey. We've got the pricing wrong as well.
But during the.
Pandemic and so sales slowed, but they actually continued in the US, and because we pivoted a little bit to urs, so we were able to pivot because of our display our display box into the off prem the US. By the end of the pandemic, we were in kind of nine states and that was pretty amazing.
Wow, which really kind of gives you some momentum, right, Yeah, Yeah, there's side.
When you expand to a new state. How much do sales grow.
At the start? Very small, It's but you've got to go. You've got a program, so.
It's not just being available. It's about educating the folks around.
So do shows. We go to shows, we educate.
We we do staff trainings in chains of bars or in the bars, right, and you try and get onto cocktail lists and then you try and get the placement in the right place behind the bars that people can see because the toad.
People do call out the toad.
So yeah, the toad on the bottle.
I gotta say, like there are times like I'm buying one, I'm like I kind of like that bottle. But it looks like your bottle is pretty cool. And we're going to get into the toad in just a moment, because you guys have actually been doing some really honorable stuff around that making sure that the toad stick stays around for a long time. You brought us something we want to talk about, the mistake. What is the mistake?
So our blend for Blend one and for a cast strength, it spends three and a half years expert one year virgin oak. Right, So I thought we'd taken out in twenty twenty are Blend one blend and put it into steel containers for the next time we needed to do it.
The pandemic was on, we didn't have a huge need for whiskey.
So about a year later I called up the guy who'd done it and I was like, where's that whiskey now and he's like, it's still in barrel. I was like, what, No, you can't, we can't take it. So I was like, well, we're going to do because I can't sell that as natter jack and I didn't.
Have a brand for it.
So it's like okay, So we left it and Jordan, via our distiller, was so he tasted about six months ago, and he's like, that is the best whiskey we've ever made. It's incredible.
So we said, okay, great, well this is what a screw up becomes a percent and evolution is full of mistakes.
And everyone was like, okay, let's let's let's really market this. We're going to say you know, this was always your vision for the whiskey. And I was like, well that's ball, Like it's a lie.
Can I continue talking?
So I was like, let's call it. Let's call it a mistake. I've made some huge mistakes in my life, so some of the best parts of life come from mistakes. And I was like, let's just own it.
It was wow, it was that sounded very good, and it is.
It's like our whiskey it's a year older, it's and one year later in virgin I know, how big of a badge, forty six barrels.
It's all sold. Yeah, huge, you can't.
You can get some through natterjack dot com. And it's when I when I say it's sold, it's left our left our distribution, right, so it's still in stores.
But we don't have That's the lot.
I haven't seen a bottle in since I saw that one todays really heavenly.
Thank you. Yeah, so it's really heavy on.
The class to walk us through.
So it's a little bit lighter on malt than our original blend, but it's still in there.
About seventeen or smell lighter hmm, yeah, I feel it.
And then there's lots there's still the char number four and still for me toasted walnut, a little bit of cinnamon.
And so what does that teach you?
As someone like these mistakes?
So now are you guys experimenting more?
Yeah, we are. We're playing around with it, we we do. You know what it taught me?
It taught me that problems are only problems if.
You see them as problems.
That's pretty nice, right, This is why you make mistakes in life.
A sorry sorry?
Yeah.
So my biggest trading mistake was about Korean one non deliverable forwards, which is which cost me my job back in.
There it really yeah did Yeah, I rolled the wrong amount.
I didn't know what a non deliverable forward was, so I now know what a non deliverbal forward is and I no longer.
So some mistakes cost a job.
Some mistakes can make a great, incredible delivery, like yeah, and.
I think it's our I think it's our best whiskey. But then also for our first shipment to China in twenty nineteen, shipment like a thousand cases. We hadn't had a thousand case orders the first year of the business. Fay and I hand dipped all the bottles in black wax and they all got sent to China. But they went through the equator, which is fifty degrees liquid expanded because it's hot, wax man because it melts packed and
so all the bottles opened. So it got to China and they said they opened it and it smelt amazing. There was no whiskey, so so it was all open.
So we turned that that was a mistake.
Yeah, turned that into mister Wang, our Chinese distributor, came in and he was like, are you going to cover the cost of this?
And I was like, no, You've got insurance.
He's like, my.
Insurance doesn't cover wax melting and liquid expanding in the equator.
And I was like, okay, if you triple your order, I'll cover the cost the first one. He's like done, Aidan.
One thing I wanted to talk about was just the changing viewer around alcohol that we're seeing here in the US. How do you think about stuff like that.
I do think about it quite a bit, and I think there definitely is a movement that way. And look, I think we know that alcohol in moderation. It's one study one day says that, with the other the oder days right, But for me, it's it is definitely a
movement towards drinking less and also drinking better. So when we talked about authenticity and knowing the process and knowing the producers, I think that's really an opportunity for us for people to say, right, well, if what I'm going to have tonight is one whiskey, I want to drink something where it actually means something to me. So it's an opportunity to connect with a consumer, and I think that's how we try and tell that story as well.
So like my mother, it's like when you're going to go shopping, like you know you're gonna buy something, make sure it's something you buy really good and make sure
it lasts forever. Like this idea of quantity over maybe quality just generally, like you do wonder whether or not that kind of kicks in again in a world where we are very blessed by abundance, but you do wonder at some point where people are kind of like, well wait a minute, you know, and certainly in a higher inflationary environment.
I think that's right.
Yeah, the natterjack toad. First of all, if you haven't seen this bottle, I'm going to take a picture and tweet it out. But it makes your bottle so distinct. Remind us about the natterjack toad.
So natterjact toad is the only toad indigenous to Ireland.
But it's a very Irish toad. It can't harp, it walks, it can't.
Swim arounds, think great, and it does things its own way to survive. So it's very definite in how it walks. It has a croak that can be heard two kilometers away, like or sorry, amazing calling we heard two kilometers away, like like some whiskey drinkers.
And it's not like always those male toads are so desperate there.
We are, right, but they're as I say, they're not very good at swimming and they live in pools, so that's not a great combination. So what happens is they tend to die off. So they're endangered in Ireland. The're originally from Ireland, they're across Europe, but they're they're originally from these sand dunes in Kerry, and so we released
yesterday released a thousand of them. We reckon about twenty percent of that will survive, and then we do next week we do another thousand and so they're they're incubated at Dingle Aquarium and then they're released. Scott and Stephen, we're down releasing them into the wild in the West of Ireland.
Fortune of your profits to are going.
Absolutely so we sponsor the program every year. It's a great program to keep them alive. And I think without them, well, this is party called Aid and Megan's Whiskey, and we wouldn't be sitting here.
Listen.
We love talking about it, and love hearing your journey, and we love hearing about the mistake.
Pank.
It's really kind of fun looking forward to what comes next. We have a great weekend you too.
Stay safe.
Aid Megan, founder of natter Jack Irish Whiskey, and I'm going to send out a picture in just a moment.
Carol Master, Tim stand this is Bloomberg.
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It's not a V six, a V eight or even a V twelve. How about tim AB sixteen.
And you've heard of a power lunch, Carol, how about the power breakfast?
Love it, love it.
It's just some of what's in the latest edition of Bloomberg Pursuits. Here now is the editor of Pursuits, Chris Rouser. So great to have you here. We do talk about the power lunch, but a lot of executives, right like we kind of like somebody say, power breakfast, we care what they eat.
That's true, you know, I think actually the power of breakfast where you meet people on decline, people do maybe power workouts together.
In the morning.
But we started this new series in the new monthly edition of Bloomberg Business Week, where we talk to CEOs as they come in and out of the offices, you know, as they come on for TV. We grab them as they're hanging out in the green room and we ask them about their lives and how they go through their day, so like, what are your workouts? What do you meditate? Like kind of like what their little life hacks are.
And in the first issue, the first monthly issue Business Week, we asked them what they eat for breakfast and some of them have kind of elaborate traditions. Some people pre make yogurt smoothies on the weekend and then they drink them all week like Chip Wade from Union Square Hospitality.
That makes sense, he's in hospitality, Like he needs to sort of be close to the product. And yeah, he's spend a lot of time on the weekends juicing. I guess.
Yeah, But then it's not food, right, it's a juice.
It's an interesting liquid.
And uh, you know, one guy, Billy Halt from Trade Wet Markets Incorporated, has turkey bacon lettuce on a whole week wrap because he doesn't eat eggs and has not eaten eggs since he was a little kid.
He should try him again. Can I tell you I'm going to sort of like g have a push for eggs.
Here here's a hack. Yeah, I mean, tim, how many eggs do you grab?
Three this morning? Not from here at home? I made them at home?
Okay, but where do you usually get them from.
Yeah, I get them here. Yeah, they're like desk kind of hides them, like, yeah, I hide them, not for people to know about.
Oops, did I did I say something that's.
A hour breakfast?
My favorite response was kim Anna, who is at hard Rock, and her answer was, I do not eat breakfast. I drink coffee. I love that, which respects.
How's your get though?
That's a little all these people drinking smoothies, who knows?
I actually love this.
I kind of feel like we should start doing this tim on air, like we should be asking like the sex who come on, like, what do you have for Breakfast's kind of interesting?
Pick a couple? Okay, standard, wait what do you wait?
So what do you have?
Well?
You eat?
Well, it depends on the day, you know. I had cereal before the war out and then three eggs after and hopefully I don't get.
Hungry soon and then he just kind of eats all day.
Yeah, okay, now you're bragging.
Yeah I know, Yeah, what do you have for?
I have a smoothie?
You have and tea?
I stopped drinking coffee first thing.
Question because smoothie takes so long to make.
And then you know, I get like a mix one of those mixes.
Okay, Carol, I.
Do a buffet upstairs, like fruit, some cheese, some cheerios.
Okay, what's the opposite of bragging?
Yeah, that's so said. Okay, where do we want to go? Where do we want to go?
I want to go to see cats. I gotta I gott to earn back some respect from Chris Rousers guys. Okay, So Kats was on Broadway for decades forever they thought when I was a kid.
Yeah, that's where most people were it from.
And it was still on Broadway.
It was one of the first It was like Andrew laid Webber's first huge blockbuster show, kind of that like CYNTHI. It was came out in nineteen eighty one. Uh, and it was such a hit, like kind of a rocky hit, and it was strange, and everyone loved the cat costumes, and honestly, like, I didn't see it. I never was really able to understand why everyone but you never saw because I'm not from New York. It doesn't have great buzz, like not that many people are like some people love cats, but.
A lot of people are like, that's a bad show.
And so it got revived.
That came out from all over like you were. I think that's what people lie.
That's the only thing that people like crawling all over you. So it makes no sense. It's just a series of vignettes. The music is really fun. It has obviously memory and some like really incredible songs. It was revived a few years ago on Broadway and now it's back at the Proman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, and it is totally reimagined, and the directors and the choreographers have placed it in the world of ballroom culture, which
is in the eighties and nineties. If you watched the show Pose or the documentary of Paris Is Burning, it was this underground queer, black and brown LATINX community where people would put on performances on runways. It's very creative. If you ever go to the Latex ball New York, they still do it. And they turned the show into a ballroom competition. And things that never made sense in Cats, like the Grizabella character who sings Memory. All these things
suddenly make sense in this new context. And the energy is wild. The audience was screaming on their feet. It's I can't even tell you. We did a story on the costumes. There are three hundred costumes. It's kind of a drag situation. So a lot of them are like tear away and there's reveals and it's just a blast.
So do you think this production of Cats makes its way back to Broadway?
I before I went in, I did not think that because it was it was made through like a grant making process at the pack and it just doesn't have that feel because it's kind of like arts and crafts and sort of like duct tape together. Somebody else said to me, this is going to be like seeing Ham at the.
Public all right, So now we need to get tired.
Actually I'm trying to get tickets right now. Yeah, you sold me on it.
But the design, like, how difficult.
I mean, that's a lot of costumes and as you said, when you're doing tear aways, you got to make sure they tear away the right time or don't get stuck.
Yeah.
So the costume designers this woman Queen Jean, and she came up with five hundred designs for costumes and narrowed it down to only three hundred. You don't really notice that there are so many because the setup of it is like people changing and getting on and off the runway, so you don't sort of you're not like, WHOA, that must have been a lot of work. You're just like,
this is so beautiful to look at. But the costumes are a huge part, but it's really the dancing and the singing and the performances.
Any cat suits, there's.
No there's no ears, there's no cats, no tails, no cat suits.
Hey, Siri, remind me to get tickets to cats.
Candidates?
Oh my god?
Which take is expensive?
They have dynamic pricing, so now that the positive reviews have come out, it is a little bit more expensive. So by at the end of the run and it's extended, and then it's going to extend again.
Actually well yeah, I'm looking at the website right now and it doesn't say they're all sold out, which is it's not sold Like this is the first time of actually going to be able to get tickets to something, because every time I hear about.
Something, it's already so, well, how long is the run?
What is it saying?
It says to August eleventh on the website, But is it can to extend more?
It already extended the end of July. Then that's I think another extension, but I do believe it's going to extend, extend even further.
There's a couple of shows that I feel like are legendary, that one and then like Phantom.
But I remember I remember seeing Phantom when I was younger, and then we took like my daughter my nieces and they were probably like in middle school or they're like, you realize this is about a creepy dude who kidnaps a woman and keeps her in the dungeon.
Why do you think this is good that we see talk about it. By the way, all of those costumes are machine washable, which I think is kind of there you go, all right now, machine washable.
Okay, we can afford tickets to cats, Oh yes, okay, we cannot afford.
A Bugatti Toban, which is a four million dollars hybrid from Bugatti, which is one of our favorite supercar brands.
Oh I didn't know. Yeah, we just love it.
It's you know, it's these cars. It's so amazing, like crazy horsepower, can go crazy fast, but they're actually also and they're also completely unaffordable to any normal human, but they have Hannah likes them because Hannah are car critic likes them because they are kind of lux on the inside too, so you're having a great, like comfortable experience inside there's cup holders and stuff, whereas some of the race cars that she sort of reviews are pretty rough
on the outside. Anyway, it's a hybrid, which is their first hybrid, and they have been very famous for doing these like sixteen cylinder combustion engines, and so doing this new car to replace the Sharon, which is their old top of the line car, just shows that they're now getting into like electric power trains. It has three electric motors, which makes it more powerful. So it has eighteen hundred horsepower and a top speed of two hundred and seventy
six miles. But that is nuts, the sixteen with three electric motors. Yeah, I mean it's a very heavy car, very heavy and the like rolls. Rice was samous for their W twelve engines and which they are now sunsetting to. It's all the way to electric, So this is this is kind of the movements and there's a complicated ownership structure, but they're partially owned by VW and then also Portia and Rimac and when Porscha and Rimac took an interest
in it. It was sort of seen. It's like, Okay, we're going to try to move this company into the future because because electrics is like a very big priority for a bole.
Second, you know what's great about this car, Carroy, which it has Apple car Play, which means you can get our program Bloomberg BusinessWeek on.
It could download this podcast.
Yeah and listen onlay.
Yeah inside the book, you know what.
I'm just blown away by that product place.
So wait, this is wait am I reading this right?
Though?
It's got a thirty seven mile range of all electric driving.
Yeah, but you know that's actually I know that sounds crazy. That's not that uncommon because part of the electric part of the power train is for speed and power. They're not meant to drive around just using the rosaries.
And stuff like that.
The other thing is I thought was interesting in this Hannah, despite the modern aesthetics of the car and the advance motors, understood its interior looks analog.
So did she not like it kind of money inside?
No, Actually, that's an really interesting question. We find like that all the digital screens in cars are actually like not what people want, you know, it's you know, some cars like Volvoar are famously like you have to toggle through screens to get to the temperature and stuff, and like people really like a knob, you know what I mean.
And so Hannah is saying, this is sort of a refreshingly analog space where you can look at the gauges, you know what's going on, You're not top toggling through menus, you're not distracted by a bright screen. And it's called the Bugatti turbion because the turbion.
Is a watch feature.
Yeah, talk, which we write about all the time. The dashboard which is so in the weeds, but it looks like this left fuel on a watch, which is a rotating cage that keeps part of the watchmaking mechanism in a watch rotating so that it does not affect it by gravity and therefore it doesn't become uneven in effect timekeeping, which is only to say that it's a thing. And watches that are expensive in sort of elites and hard
to create. Because the engine system in this car was so hard to create, that's why they wanted to call.
It that, all right, four point one million dollars, yeah, three point nine million euros. If you prefer it sounds great to see that way.
Okay, definitely want to go see cats.
I love that you love and it just sounds like like such a blast, It's so much fun.
Before we let you go, can you give us some sort of preview of what you're thinking about when it comes to pursuits in the near future. Just to leave our listeners on edge, We have.
A look at in our next monthly issue at a certain kind of like wellness care that is pretty expensive but also kind of promises to make your life better for longer. And we tested out some of these cool programs to see which ones seem legit.
I love when you guys go into the wellness area, But is it like an oxygen chamber there?
You can't give any money, you can't so many things.
All right, we get a run.
A big thank you to Chris Rouser, the editor of Ploomber Pursuits. I'm tim Stennebeck.
And I'm Carol Masser. Have a good and save weekend. Everyone.
This is the Bloomberg Business Week podcast, available on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg Dot com the iHeartRadio app tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg terminal