Paultons Park: General Discussion

[East Coast Mariner]

If I remember correctly, didn’t Paultons at one point put out a planning application or some kind of document that had a Mack logo jpg pasted over a water coaster train, or am I imagining things?

It was actually Intamin (one of their Water Coasters), if we're thinking of the same thing. Those are huge, though, of course.

For what it's worth, I definitely lean towards the ride being the smallest version of the Mack SuperSplash. I guess we'll find out in three months!

 

[Lewis232]

Because I clearly have an extremely active social life, I’ve just spent the last hour going through Paultons Park’s annual financial statements, which run all the way back to 1993. These figures obviously aren’t inflation-adjusted, but what really jumps out is how the Mancey family were doing perfectly well in the 90s and 2000s but after Peppa Pig happened....wow.

They go from a park that had never made more than £900k a year after tax to suddenly pulling in multiple millions annually. I know the family have said before that Peppa’s success genuinely caught them by surprise, and that the surge in visitors caused some operational and infrastructure headaches, but financially it must have felt like winning the lottery.

Post-tax profits by year:

1993 – £205k
1994 – £340k
1995 – £392k
1996 – £351k
1997 – £297k
1998 – £311k
1999 – £310k
2000 – £411k
2001 – £501k
2002 – £483k
2003 – £535k
2004 – £347k
2005 – £858k
2006 – £350k
2007 – £677k
2008 – £242k
2009 – £684k
2010 – £889k
2011 – £6.4m
2012 – £4.9m
2013 – £5.9m
2014 – £1.9m
2015 – £4.8m
2016 – £5.8m
2017 – £4.2m
2018 – £5.4m
2019 – £5.1m
2020 – £632k
2021 – £12.3m
2022 – £6.4m
2023 – £4.8m
2024 – £4.8m

The step change from 2011 onwards is absolutely wild. One IP completely transformed the scale of the business.

 

[pluk]

The step change from 2011 onwards is absolutely wild. One IP completely transformed the scale of the business.

That is certainly true, but I think it is really important to acknowledge that it wasn't simply the IP that transformed the business so drastically, but what they did with that IP. From the off the area amd experience was such high quality that they didn't just get to trade off the name for a year or two, but built a reputation and customer base that return and return. They could have cheaply cash grabbed on the back of a modest marketing spend, they didn't, and that's why they've had such success.

 

[Bowser]

Because I clearly have an extremely active social life, I’ve just spent the last hour going through Paultons Park’s annual financial statements, which run all the way back to 1993. These figures obviously aren’t inflation-adjusted, but what really jumps out is how the Mancey family were doing perfectly well in the 90s and 2000s but after Peppa Pig happened....wow.

They go from a park that had never made more than £900k a year after tax to suddenly pulling in multiple millions annually. I know the family have said before that Peppa’s success genuinely caught them by surprise, and that the surge in visitors caused some operational and infrastructure headaches, but financially it must have felt like winning the lottery.

Post-tax profits by year:

1993 – £205k
1994 – £340k
1995 – £392k
1996 – £351k
1997 – £297k
1998 – £311k
1999 – £310k
2000 – £411k
2001 – £501k
2002 – £483k
2003 – £535k
2004 – £347k
2005 – £858k
2006 – £350k
2007 – £677k
2008 – £242k
2009 – £684k
2010 – £889k
2011 – £6.4m
2012 – £4.9m
2013 – £5.9m
2014 – £1.9m
2015 – £4.8m
2016 – £5.8m
2017 – £4.2m
2018 – £5.4m
2019 – £5.1m
2020 – £632k
2021 – £12.3m
2022 – £6.4m
2023 – £4.8m
2024 – £4.8m

The step change from 2011 onwards is absolutely wild. One IP completely transformed the scale of the business.

Wonder why 2014 was so low?

That Covid bounce back is mad too! Essentially had zero impact on them.

Yet people here say Alton are still reeling from it 5 years later…

 

[rob666]

Gardener here...don't know about the south, but 2014 was a very wet summer up north...especially August.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Wonder why 2014 was so low?

A dip in net profit signals a spike in expenditure rather than a collapse in gate figures.

2014 was the year ground was broken and heavy investment began for Lost Kingdom, which opened in 2016. That project cost £9 million. When you're a family owned business paying for things with cash rather than leveraging debt like our friends at Merlin, those construction costs hit the balance sheet hard and fast.

That Covid bounce back is mad too! Essentially had zero impact on them.

Yet people here say Alton are still reeling from it 5 years later…

The 2021 figure is the perfect storm of three factors colliding.

Tornado Springs: - They opened a massive, world-class new land that had been delayed from 2020.

The Staycation Boom: - International travel was illegal, impossible, or terrifyingly expensive. The entire UK population was trapped on the island with holiday money burning a hole in their pocket.

The Get Me Out of Here Factor: - Parents had been locked indoors with toddlers for the best part of 18 months. They would have paid double the gate price just to let them look at a pig in a field if it meant getting out of the house.

Merlin actually posted record revenues in 2022 as part of that same bounce back.

The difference is that when Paultons makes £12.3 million in profit, the Mancey family are able to put it in the bank. When Merlin makes a profit, it immediately disappears to service the interest on the multi billion pound debt pile loaded onto them by Blackstone.

Merlin, and thus Alton Towers, are reeling from its mortgage payments.

 

[Smudgy]

Because I clearly have an extremely active social life, I’ve just spent the last hour going through Paultons Park’s annual financial statements, which run all the way back to 1993. These figures obviously aren’t inflation-adjusted, but what really jumps out is how the Mancey family were doing perfectly well in the 90s and 2000s but after Peppa Pig happened....wow.

They go from a park that had never made more than £900k a year after tax to suddenly pulling in multiple millions annually. I know the family have said before that Peppa’s success genuinely caught them by surprise, and that the surge in visitors caused some operational and infrastructure headaches, but financially it must have felt like winning the lottery.

Post-tax profits by year:

1993 – £205k
1994 – £340k
1995 – £392k
1996 – £351k
1997 – £297k
1998 – £311k
1999 – £310k
2000 – £411k
2001 – £501k
2002 – £483k
2003 – £535k
2004 – £347k
2005 – £858k
2006 – £350k
2007 – £677k
2008 – £242k
2009 – £684k
2010 – £889k
2011 – £6.4m
2012 – £4.9m
2013 – £5.9m
2014 – £1.9m
2015 – £4.8m
2016 – £5.8m
2017 – £4.2m
2018 – £5.4m
2019 – £5.1m
2020 – £632k
2021 – £12.3m
2022 – £6.4m
2023 – £4.8m
2024 – £4.8m

The step change from 2011 onwards is absolutely wild. One IP completely transformed the scale of the business.

The fact that Paultons is in the grand scheme of things earning so little, but at the same time being the ideal model for all UK parks in terms of constant ride lineup changes, theming, etc, makes the state of Towers even more comical.

 

[Lewis232]

Wonder why 2014 was so low?

Large investment into the parks infrastructure in 2013/14; new entrance, shop and restaurant, car park expanded and paved, large new back of house area, workshop, staff areas, etc. Plus I imagine payments to Vekoma and contractors for Lost Kingdom

 

[Benjsh]

Because I clearly have an extremely active social life, I’ve just spent the last hour going through Paultons Park’s annual financial statements, which run all the way back to 1993. These figures obviously aren’t inflation-adjusted, but what really jumps out is how the Mancey family were doing perfectly well in the 90s and 2000s but after Peppa Pig happened....wow.

They go from a park that had never made more than £900k a year after tax to suddenly pulling in multiple millions annually. I know the family have said before that Peppa’s success genuinely caught them by surprise, and that the surge in visitors caused some operational and infrastructure headaches, but financially it must have felt like winning the lottery.

Post-tax profits by year:

1993 – £205k
1994 – £340k
1995 – £392k
1996 – £351k
1997 – £297k
1998 – £311k
1999 – £310k
2000 – £411k
2001 – £501k
2002 – £483k
2003 – £535k
2004 – £347k
2005 – £858k
2006 – £350k
2007 – £677k
2008 – £242k
2009 – £684k
2010 – £889k
2011 – £6.4m
2012 – £4.9m
2013 – £5.9m
2014 – £1.9m
2015 – £4.8m
2016 – £5.8m
2017 – £4.2m
2018 – £5.4m
2019 – £5.1m
2020 – £632k
2021 – £12.3m
2022 – £6.4m
2023 – £4.8m
2024 – £4.8m

The step change from 2011 onwards is absolutely wild. One IP completely transformed the scale of the business.

Very impressive figures given the bleak outlook at Blackpool and some of the Merlin owned parks. This has been achieved without being an incredibly busy park to visit and also whilst offering free car parking too.

Clearly this family know what they are doing and I think the decision to build a Peppa Pig area (2011) might well be one of the best decisions a UK theme Park company have ever made.

 

[QTXAdsy]

Very impressive figures given the bleak outlook at Blackpool and some of the Merlin owned parks. This has been achieved without being an incredibly busy park to visit and also whilst offering free car parking too.

Clearly this family know what they are doing and I think the decision to build a Peppa Pig area (2011) might well be one of the best decisions a UK theme Park company have ever made.

Speaking of Peppa Pig and how that perhaps forever transformed the fate of the park, I can't help that regarding Drayton and Thomas Land both parks went their separate ways following their IP area in which while Paultons improved and never looked back, Drayton had a difficult few years after that and I can't help but wonder what if Drayton had underwent a similar rise following their Thomas land area back a few years?

Yes, Drayton is going down that family park route yet what if things had gone well for them too and never had those difficult few years? We could have been in a timeline in which Paultons and Drayton were battling it out to be number one family theme park in the UK while the Merlin parks would be left their trousers down, even if perhaps they already are.

 

[Quantum]

Itake you wonder if Towers, Thorpe and Chessington were all run as individual entities like Paultons, where they would be now

Paultons can invest profits directly back into the park where as Merlin parks it's used for shareholders and the never ending expansion of Lego lands.

 

[jon81uk]

Itake you wonder if Towers, Thorpe and Chessington were all run as individual entities like Paultons, where they would be now

Its really hard to say, Chessington was part of the Tussauds group since 1987 and Alton Towers since 1992. Without the input of Tussauds I don't think either park would be where they are now, things like Vampire, Fifth Dimension (later Terror Tomb), The Haunted House and Nemesis probably wouldn't have got built without Tussauds and John Wardley. The bigger question with those parks is more around what if Pearson hadn't sold Tussauds in 1999.

 

[Bowser]

Speaking of Peppa Pig and how that perhaps forever transformed the fate of the park, I can't help that regarding Drayton and Thomas Land both parks went their separate ways following their IP area in which while Paultons improved and never looked back, Drayton had a difficult few years after that and I can't help but wonder what if Drayton had underwent a similar rise following their Thomas land area back a few years?

Yes, Drayton is going down that family park route yet what if things had gone well for them too and never had those difficult few years? We could have been in a timeline in which Paultons and Drayton were battling it out to be number one family theme park in the UK while the Merlin parks would be left their trousers down, even if perhaps they already are.

I think Paultons were just incredibly lucky or shrewd (or both) to catch lightning in a bottle with an IP as popular as Peppa Pig. As others have said, they also deserve credit for delivering on the execution too but the reality is there are very few IP's out there (let alone available ones) that have the drawing power of The Pig. Thomas certainly isn't it and neither will Paw Patrol be for Chessington regardless of how well they present it.

Will be interesting to see how Minecraft pans out, though i suspect they're already well past the peak. Bluey we'll have to wait and see if it stands the test of time but the fact it's only one ride means i doubt it will have anywhere near the same impact.

 

[Lewis232]

This is an (old) interview with Richard Mancey that I was reading yesterday covering the process behind Peppa Pig, which then sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole through their annual reports and filings.

It must have been such a surreal experience for them going from running a small regional family park for 25 years to suddenly being overwhelmed with visitors almost overnight and becoming multi-millionaires in the process.

He clearly comes across as a very capable businessman, and from the bits I’ve seen with Lawrence and James they seem to have kept that same thoughtful leadership. I genuinely look forward to seeing where the park is in another ten years’ time.

https://blooloop.com/theme-park/in-depth/paultons-park-peppa-pig-world-mancey/

 

[Bowser]

This is an (old) interview with Richard Mancey that I was reading yesterday covering the process behind Peppa Pig, which then sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole through their annual reports and filings.

It must have been such a surreal experience for them going from running a small regional family park for 25 years to suddenly being overwhelmed with visitors almost overnight and becoming multi-millionaires in the process.

He clearly comes across as a very capable businessman, and from the bits I’ve seen with Lawrence and James they seem to have kept that same thoughtful leadership. I genuinely look forward to seeing where the park is in another ten years’ time.

https://blooloop.com/theme-park/in-depth/paultons-park-peppa-pig-world-mancey/

That's a great interview, thanks! @GooseOnTheLoose will enjoy his comments on accommodation in particular.

Pretty much confirms my suspicions that they lucked out as he references the growth in Peppa Pigs popularity from the time they made the deal to the opening of the area .

I didn't realise PPW was extended for the 2018 season. I wonder if that £6m figure being discussed in the Chessington thread is inclusive of that because i'd argue those additions (The Queen's monorail and Grampy's Mack Boat ride) are far more significant than what came before, both in terms of ride systems and theming. I would guess not which explains the disparity in the quoted cost of Paw Patrol.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I didn't realise PPW was extended for the 2018 season. I wonder if that £6m figure being discussed in the Chessington thread is inclusive of that because i'd argue those additions (The Queen's monorail and Grampy's Mack Boat ride) are far more significant than what came before, both in terms of ride systems and theming. I would guess not which explains the disparity in the quoted cost of Paw Patrol.

A little on this, as I decided to take my own look at Paultons Park Limited's most recent annual report and financial statement.

It would appear that Ghostly Manor alone cost around £5 million - £6 million, if we presume that most of the "Additions" line of "Assets under construction" in 2024 relates to that project.

That is £5 million for a single, albeit highly themed, indoor attraction.

If we extrapolate that to the Chessington discussion... The original Peppa Pig World cost £6 million in 2011. Adjusted for CPI inflation, that is roughly £9.5 million today; adjusted for construction inflation (which is significantly higher), it is likely over £12 million.

If a single dark ride at Paultons is costing £5 - 6 million in the current economic climate, then £15 million for a fully themed World of Paw Patrol, consisting of multiple rides, infrastructure, heavy landscaping, and the requisite IP licensing fees to Paramount, actually feels about right. It isn't necessarily a hyped up figure, it's just the depressing reality of how much it costs to pour concrete and bend steel in the 2020s.