Flamingo Land: General Discussion

[Hid]

Flamingo Land now probably has the superior coaster lineup then in the past, but the flat ride lineup looked to be much better. I first visited in 2021 so correct me if I am wrong but the flat ride lineup at Flamingo Land used to be one of the best judging from pictures

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Well that's a load of ********.

I've just read through Flamingo Land's 2025 financial statements, and the narrative presented in the YouTube video is coloured (to be expected, really).

The video states they made a £2.8 million profit the year prior. That's wrong. Their 2024 profit was £1.19 million. The £1.5 million loss for 2025 is real, but it's not a sign of a park in terminal decline. It's almost entirely driven by heavy capital investment and expansion.

Energy bills rising is not only hitting us in the pocket when it comes to paying our bills....it's hurting lots of small, medium and large businesses too. Theme Parks have probably been hit as hard as most too. Staggered ride openings have almost certainly been a response to it.

Net Zero is hurting this country more than people think it is. All whilst countries in Europe open new Power Stations almost every month. Complete waste of space if you ask me to go on a Net Zero journey when others aren't coming along with us.

The loss has nothing to do with Net Zero, or the broader energy crisis. The company's own carbon reporting shows their overall energy usage decreased slightly by 0.05% year on year. Although the heating and lighting bill did go up by £538k, the directors explicitly state this is "largely attributable to the Alpamare site".

Which brings us to the real reason for the loss... Flamingo Land leased the closed Alpamare Water Park in Scarborough.

They didn't get it open until late July 2024, meaning they missed the entire spring and early summer season, but still had to foot the bill for running an expensive water park through the winter. Combine that with a £600k jump in staff wages, a £601k increase in depreciation charges from building Dewars Hotel, Sik and the Lost River Ride, and a £1.38 million drop in turnover due to the awful British summer weather, and that's where your loss comes from. Not energy costs.

The main reason I won't go to Flamingoland is the ticket price. It's considerably higher than what it should be for what you get. If it was £35ish I might be tempted.

Staff wages eat up 39.27% of their turnover. If they were to drop the ticket price to £35, they'd need a colossal increase in footfall just to break even.

If you think their operations and queues are bad now, imagine what happens when you slash the gate price by 40% and flood a park which already struggles with capacity.

They've also got the constant, unyielding overhead of running a fully functional zoo, which includes charitable outgoings like £27,000 to Tanzanian wildlife conservation and feeding / housing stock. They can't afford to run a high volume, low margin model. The high gate price suppresses attendance just enough to keep the park functional while covering their massive baseline overheads.

It was a bad year on paper, but it reads much more like a hangover from expansion rather than a structural collapse of the core park.

 

[VHSGnome]

Flamingo Land now probably has the superior coaster lineup then in the past, but the flat ride lineup looked to be much better. I first visited in 2021 so correct me if I am wrong but the flat ride lineup at Flamingo Land used to be one of the best judging from pictures

Many years ago, they used to have some very rare flat rides such as a HUSS UFO, HUSS Tri-Star, Vekoma Sky Flyer, Vekoma Waikiki Wave, Fabbri Evolution and even a Intamin Flight Trainer!!

 

[Jb85]

Well that's a load of ********.

I've just read through Flamingo Land's 2025 financial statements, and the narrative presented in the YouTube video is coloured (to be expected, really).

The video states they made a £2.8 million profit the year prior. That's wrong. Their 2024 profit was £1.19 million. The £1.5 million loss for 2025 is real, but it's not a sign of a park in terminal decline. It's almost entirely driven by heavy capital investment and expansion.

The loss has nothing to do with Net Zero, or the broader energy crisis. The company's own carbon reporting shows their overall energy usage decreased slightly by 0.05% year on year. Although the heating and lighting bill did go up by £538k, the directors explicitly state this is "largely attributable to the Alpamare site".

Which brings us to the real reason for the loss... Flamingo Land leased the closed Alpamare Water Park in Scarborough.

They didn't get it open until late July 2024, meaning they missed the entire spring and early summer season, but still had to foot the bill for running an expensive water park through the winter. Combine that with a £600k jump in staff wages, a £601k increase in depreciation charges from building Dewars Hotel, Sik and the Lost River Ride, and a £1.38 million drop in turnover due to the awful British summer weather, and that's where your loss comes from. Not energy costs.

Staff wages eat up 39.27% of their turnover. If they were to drop the ticket price to £35, they'd need a colossal increase in footfall just to break even.

If you think their operations and queues are bad now, imagine what happens when you slash the gate price by 40% and flood a park which already struggles with capacity.

They've also got the constant, unyielding overhead of running a fully functional zoo, which includes charitable outgoings like £27,000 to Tanzanian wildlife conservation and feeding / housing stock. They can't afford to run a high volume, low margin model. The high gate price suppresses attendance just enough to keep the park functional while covering their massive baseline overheads.

It was a bad year on paper, but it reads much more like a hangover from expansion rather than a structural collapse of the core park.

Nice summary our @GooseOnTheLoose
Just read the report myself and everything you have said is spot on.

The board seem to be indicating that profit will remain lower due to higher costs being expected. There does seem to be a large increase in depreciation costs which hit the bottom line.

I wouldn’t say the park is struggling. It seems to me that they are actually planning to invest accepting lower short term profit as a result.

 

[JAperson]

I suspect they had planned to take out significantly more debt in the future too, with their planned caravan park in Scotland that has now been refused permission (although they seem to be determined to continue fighting it)