Callaway Gardens Makes More Changes to Return to Profitability

Callaway Gardens was $44 million in debt in 2010.  It had lost money steadily for decades, and the rate of loss increased when the resort’s endowment faltered amid the dot-com bust in the early 2000s.

After  making changes and selling 7,000 of its 13,000 acres, the debt is now about $8 million, which CEO Ed Callaway calls manageable.

He calls the elimination of 12 jobs at the resort normal business tweaking. “We take steps to reduce cost and improve service all the time, and these steps we just took were in that vein,” says Callaway. “And I believe the reason people are so alarmed is because they remember, just six months ago, we were in an alarming position. But now we’re not.”

The resort will also close next year from January 1-10, a time Callaway says the resort was virtually empty anyway.

With recent renovations, he says he expects a return to profitability next year when meeting business, lost over the years and with the economic downtown, is scheduled to pick up again.