SKYCITY HAMILTON STAFF to be rewarded from profit

SKYCITY HAMILTON STAFF to be rewarded for contribution to company PROFIT

Following SKYCITY Entertainment Group's annual result announcement today, a fourth consecutive performance-based cash bonus will be paid out to waged staff at SKYCITY Hamilton, lifting the total amount paid in staff bonuses across SKYCITY Entertainment Group properties over the past four years to over $5.3 million.

Around 209 wage-earning staff at SKYCITY Hamilton (and another 2800 waged staff in the SKYCITY Group) working in a variety of roles ranging from gaming dealers to cleaners, chefs, waiters and car park attendants, will share in a total bonus pool of over $926,000, which will be paid out to eligible staff across the SKYCITY Group over the coming week. They join SKYCITY's shareholders (who will receive dividends totalling 90% of the $121m profit) in celebrating the company's strong performance.

Full time employees at SKYCITY Hamilton will receive $400 cash in the hand, with those people who have been with the SKYCITY Group longer than five years receiving an additional long-service payment of $50.

SKYCITY Hamilton General Manager Operations, Phil Keber, says the bonus rewards staff for achieving demanding financial and customer service targets.

"Customer service is paramount to SKYCITY. Because of this, we have independent market research conducted each month to measure our performance.

"The results show that our Hamilton staff continued to provide excellent customer service. This has been a year of significant achievement for us - our first full financial year and a period of further growth that has seen us open the new SKYCITY Hamilton function centre and expand our popular Number 8 bar.

"Next month we celebrate our second anniversary (SKYCITY Hamilton opened on 20 September 2002). We look forward to entering our third year in operation with continued participation in the local community, through a range of initiatives and events such as our involvement as entertainment sponsor for next weekend's Gallagher Boathouse 8s race on the Waikato River.

"I'm proud of the way our staff here have performed consistently and achieved such high levels of service and am delighted they are able to share once again, with SKYCITY's shareholders, in the company's success," said Mr Keber.

SKYCITY is unique in the entertainment and hospitality sector in offering incentive based bonuses to waged staff.

Waged employees at SKYCITY Entertainment Group properties (SKYCITY Auckland, SKYCITY Hamilton, SKYCITY Queenstown Casino and SKYCITY Adelaide) participate in a bonus programme.

When announcing the company's 2004 result today, SKYCITY Entertainment Group Managing Director Evan Davies acknowledged the important contribution of staff to the company's strong performance.

"Today we have announced another positive result for the company - one that could not have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of our staff.

"Our incentive programmes were introduced to align employees' goals with the company's strategic objectives and to share the success of the company with our employees, formally recognising the significant role they play in this achievement."

The CEI (Customer Service Index) customer service based bonus scheme for waged staff was originally introduced at SKYCITY Auckland in December 2000, with other company properties following suit over the last two and a half years. Waged employees at all SKYCITY Entertainment Group properties throughout New Zealand and Australia* are entitled to a bonus, on top of ordinary wages and other benefits, if both customer service target levels and company financial targets are met.

Independent market research is undertaken monthly through the complex, surveying customers to determine levels of customer satisfaction. When the financial and customer service levels exceed targets, waged staff are rewarded with cash bonuses half yearly.

The six-monthly bonuses for waged staff at SKYCITY sits alongside a similar plan for salaried staff, under which employees are rewarded annually for meeting company and individual performance targets with a mix of cash and SKYCITY shares. Many individual performance targets for salaried staff are linked to customer service targets, ensuring equal ownership of customer service delivery from front-of-house personnel through to management.
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*SKYCITY Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory, was purchased by SKYCITY in July 2004 and the SKYCITY incentive programmes have not yet been introduced in Darwin.

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