PARKS AMERICA, INC 10-K

ITEM 1. BUSINESS Overview Parks! America, Inc., through our wholly owned subsidiaries, owns and operates three regional safari parks and is in the business of acquiring, developing and operating local and regional entertainment assets in the United States. Our wholly owned subsidiaries are Wild Animal Safari, Inc., a Georgia corporation (“Wild Animal – Georgia”), Wild Animal, Inc., a Missouri corporation (“Wild Animal – Missouri”), and Aggieland-Parks, Inc., a Texas corporation (“Aggieland Wild Animal – Texas”). Wild Animal – Georgia owns and operates the Wild Animal Safari park in Pine Mountain, Georgia (the “Georgia Park”). Wild Animal – Missouri owns and operates the Wild Animal Safari park located in Strafford, Missouri (the “Missouri Park”). Aggieland Wild Animal – Texas owns and operates the Aggieland Wild Animal Safari park near Bryan/College Station, Texas (the “Texas Park”). We acquired our Georgia Park on June 13, 2005, our Missouri Park on March 5, 2008, and our Texas Park on April 27, 2020. Our parks are open year round, but experience increased seasonal attendance, typically beginning in the latter half of March through early September. Combined third and fourth quarter park revenues were 60.4% and 62.1% of annual park revenues for our 2023 and 2022 fiscal years, respectively. Since the acquisition of our Texas Park, the combined third and fourth quarter concentration of our park revenues has been reduced. Our business plan includes expansion via the acquisition of additional local or regional safari parks and entertainment assets. We believe acquisitions, if any, should not unnecessarily encumber the Company with additional debt that cannot be justified by current operations. We may also pursue contract management opportunities for themed attractions owned by third parties. By using a combination of equity, debt and other financing options, we intend to carefully monitor stockholder value in conjunction with the pursuit of growth. Shares of our common stock trade on the OTC Markets Group OTCPink marketplace (“OTCPink”) under the symbol, “PRKA.” For an overview of our business operations, see MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS herein. Corporate History The Company was originally incorporated on July 30, 1954 as Painted Desert Uranium & Oil Co., Inc. in Washington State. On October 1, 2002, Painted Desert Uranium & Oil Co., Inc. changed its name to Royal Pacific Resources, Inc. and its corporate domicile to the State of Nevada. On December 19, 2003, Royal Pacific Resources, Inc. acquired the assets of Great Western Parks LLC pursuant to a Share Exchange Agreement that set the stage for our current corporate structure and operating strategy. We changed the name of the Company to Great American Family Parks, Inc. The acquisition was accounted for as a “reverse acquisition” in which Great Western Parks was considered the acquirer of Royal Pacific Resources for reporting purposes. As of June 11, 2008, the Company changed its name from Great American Family Parks, Inc. to its current name, Parks! America, Inc. In addition, effective June 25, 2008, the Company’s quotation symbol on the OTCPink was changed from GFAM to PRKA. Wild Animal Safari, Inc. – Our Georgia Park On June 13, 2005, Wild Animal – Georgia acquired our Georgia Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia. Our Georgia Park is situated within a 200-acre portion of a 500-acre plot, which is owned by Wild Animal – Georgia, located approximately 75 miles southwest of Atlanta. Our Georgia Park features a three-mile drive-through animal viewing area that opened in 1991. It is home to over 500 animals, birds and reptiles, comprised of over 65 species. Most of the animals roam wild in a natural habitat. Visitors can observe, photograph and feed the animals along the paved road that runs through the drive-through section of our Georgia Park’s natural habitat area. Some animals are contained in special fenced-in exhibit areas within the natural habitat, drive-through section of our Georgia Park, while others are in a more traditional zoo-like walk through section of the park, the Walkabout Adventure Zoo, which also includes a reptile house, featuring reptiles from several continents. 4 In late March 2023, our Georgia Park experienced extensive damage, caused by an EF-3 tornado and over nine inches of rain, resulting in more than 4,500 fallen trees and damage to many of the Park’s animal enclosures, fencing and other infrastructure. The Walkabout Adventure Zoo (“Walkabout”) portion of the property was particularly hard hit. Our Georgia Park was closed for 20 days, including for most of its traditionally busy spring break period, which has historically comprised approximately 10%-15% of its annual revenue. The drive-through safari section of the Georgia Park reopened on April 15th. The Walkabout portion of the park has reopened in phases, with the first phase on May 6th and the second phase on July 2nd. Approximately one-quarter of the Walkabout remains closed. Our 2024 fiscal year capital projects reflect further strategic rebuild of our Georgia Park following the March 2023 weather event and continue to set the stage for longer-term master planning. Wild Animal, Inc. – Our Missouri Park Wild Animal – Missouri purchased our Missouri Park as of March 5, 2008. Our Missouri Park is situated in Strafford, Missouri on 255 acres of land located 12 miles east of Springfield and approximately 45 miles north of Branson. Our Missouri Park features a five-mile drive-through wild animal viewing area that opened in 1971. It is home to approximately 350 animals, birds and reptiles, comprised of over 65 species. Most of the animals roam wild throughout a natural habitat. Visitors can observe, photograph and feed the animals along the paved road that runs throughout the drive-through section of our Missouri Park’s natural habitat area. Some animals are contained in special fenced-in exhibit areas within the natural habitat, drive-through section of our Missouri Park and other animals are in a more traditional zoo-like walk through section of the park, the Walkabout Adventure Zoo, which also contains a reptile house, featuring reptiles from several continents. Aggieland-Parks, Inc. – Our Texas Park Aggieland Wild Animal – Texas acquired our Texas Park on April 27, 2020. Our Texas Park is situated on 250 acres of a 450-acre property, located approximately 25 miles northeast of Bryan/College Station, Texas and 120 miles northwest of downtown Houston. Our Texas Park features a two-and-a-half mile drive-through animal viewing area that opened in 2019. It is home to over 600 animals, birds and reptiles, comprised of over 70 species. Most of the animals roam wild throughout a natural habitat. Visitors can observe, photograph and feed the animals along a crushed-gravel road that runs throughout the drive-through section of our Texas Park’s natural habitat area. Our Texas Park also includes a 20-acre Walkabout Adventure Zoo, featuring outdoor and indoor animal exhibits, a reptile house, an aviary, an extensive giraffe encounter area, an otter exhibit, and a large hippopotamus enclosure and pond. Animal Park Operations Park revenues are primarily derived from admission fees, food and beverage sales, gift shop and specialty item sales, and sales of animal food. During our 2022 fiscal year, we introduced private and semi-private animal keeper guided animal encounters at each of our parks. We also introduced vehicle rentals at our Missouri and Texas Parks, which have been a customer favorite at our Georgia Park for over a decade. Management’s plans to grow revenues at each of our parks include ongoing improvements to existing facilities, making each park more attractive to visitors and developing unused acreage. We also believe that increasing local and regional awareness of each park via advertising and promotion is a critical element of our revenue growth plans, especially for our Texas and Missouri Parks. In addition to the animal environments, each of our parks contains a gift shop, a restaurant or concessions areas, and picnic areas. We sell food and beverages in our restaurants or concession areas, and a variety of items in our gift shops, including shirts, hats, plush, educational books, toys and novelty items, many of which are animal themed. Our 2024 fiscal year plans include the continuing renovation of Walkabout animal habitats and enclosures, especially at our Georgia Park following the impact of the March 2023 weather event, the rebuild of a new restroom building and main entry plaza at our Georgia park and maintenance capital on roadways and core infrastructure. Our plan to open a significant new giraffe exhibit at our Georgia Park during our 2022 fiscal year experienced delays due to a highly inflationary period for building materials and a challenging labor market. While we remain committed to this showcase attraction, the project has been further delayed due to the extensive damage and ongoing rebuild efforts following the March 2023 severe weather and tornado event. We expect to establish a revised timeline for this project during our 2024 fiscal year. Increasing attendance, and overall guest satisfaction, as well as increasing the per capita revenue generated in our gift shops and from concessions, continues to be a primary focus. Most of the animals at each of our parks have been born on-site or domestically acquired. We rarely import animals and have not imported any animals in the past 15 years. Auctions and sales of animals across the United States occur often and we may acquire animals in these auctions if we see an opportunity to enhance the animal population at our parks. As a result of natural breeding, animal populations at our Parks tend to grow over time. Periodically, we sell surplus animals, and the proceeds are recorded as revenue. The periodic acquisition and sale of animals is also part of our herd and genetic management program. From time-to-time, we may also relocate animals between our parks as part of this program. Each park is subject to routine inspection by federal and state agencies. Each park maintains a high standard of animal care and has passed all recent inspections. 5 Employees Our Georgia Park has approximately 25 full-time employees and engages 20-35 additional part-time and seasonal employees. Our Missouri Park has approximately 11 full-time employees and engages 6-12 additional part-time and seasonal employees. Our Texas Park has approximately 13 full-time employees and engages 8-12 additional part-time and seasonal employees. We also engage consultants from time to time. We have no collective bargaining agreements with our employees and believe our relations with our employees are good. Parks! America has two officers and one manager who oversee the strategy of the Company, the operations and capital investment activities of our parks, as well as the overall financial activities, controls and reporting for the Company and each park.