Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

Had nothing else better to do so thought I would go through the BPB accounts on the companies house website.

I am no accountant but I picked out 2 figures which I thought made the most sense. The table below contains the following columns.....

• Year - accounts made up to the end of March or beginning of April in that particular year - so it is profit/loss from most of the previous season and the first part of that season.
• Operating Profit/Loss - which I assume is just the profit/loss from the running of the park.
• Retained Profit/Loss - which I am guessing is the profit/loss after other things have been taken into account, such as interest payments, dividends, purchases and sales of assets etc...

Some years of note...

• 2019 Boulevard Hotel opened
• 2018 Icon opened - wild mouse gone - walk round charge increased from £6 to £10
• 2015 Skyforce opened
• 2011 Nickelodeon land opened
• 2009 Introduction of the walk round charge (I think it was that year)
• 2007 Infusion opened replacing the log flume
• 2006 Final year the Thompsons owned Pleasureland Southport
• 2005 The last year Big JR was listed as one of the directors
• 2004 Amanda became the owner
• 2003 Big Blue Hotel opened
• 2000 Valhalla opened - Wristband option introduced (I think it was that year)
• 1999 Final year of Frontierland Morecambe
• 1997 Ice Blast opened
• 1994 Big One opened
• 1988 Avalanche opened

Make of it what you will.......

Year ** Operating P/L *Retained P/L
2019 ** -£1,026,000 ** -£1,582,000
2018 ** -£2,352,000 ** -£2,790,000
2017 ** +£387,000 **** -£314,000
2016 ** +£484,000 **** -£2,000
2015 ** +£1,050,000 ** +£212,000
2014 ** -£1,167,000 ** -£1,491,000
2013 ** -£1,901,000 ** -£1,753,000
2012 ** -£765,000 **** -£1,275,000
2011 ** -£539,000 **** -£814,000
2010 ** -£694,000 **** -£566,000
2009 ** -£3,884,000 ** -£3,301,000
2008 ** +£702,000 **** +£2,948,000
2007 ** -£620,000 **** -£1,177,000
2006 ** -£1,232,000 ** -£5,325,000
2005 ** +£1,722,000 ** +£3,044,000
2004 ** +£1,411,000 ** +£54,000
2003 ** +£1,499,000 ** -£166,000
2002 ** +£3,063,000 ** +£918,000
2001 ** +£2,238,000 ** +£1,641,000
2000 ** -£376,000 **** -£744,000
1999 ** -£590,000 **** -£1,349,000
1998 ** +£613,000 **** -£537,000
1997 ** +£2,078,000 ** +£880,000
1996 ** +£415,000 **** -£925,000
1995 ** +£1,077,000 ** -£101,000
1994 ** +£3,139,000 ** +£2,506,000
1993 ** +£65,000 ***** -£563,000
1992 ** +£690,000 **** -£651,000
1991 ** +£2,252,000 ** +£1,981,000
1990 ** +£2,134,000 ** +£487,000
1989 ** +£1,381,000 ** +£599,000
1988 ** +£1,164,000 ** +£407,000
1987 ** +£1,268,000 ** -£335,000

Ooof, look at 2006. You can certainly see when the creditors came in after the death of WGT.

Interesting to see the impact that new rides have on the profit margin. Valhalla seemingly failed to capture the imagination in its debut year in the way that more visible rides like The Big One and Playstation/Ice Blast did, but become a sleeper hit. The same could be true of Icon, which was marketed poorly, but it's too early to tell, given the pandemic.

The walkaround fee clearly had a huge historical effect. I still don't think they should or can revert, but it'd be difficult to make an argument otherwise.

I do worry about the financial future of BPB.

Kinda mirrors my experience too, 2015 was great every visit and then got worse especially with the stupid meddling with advertised close time vs on the day close time.

Icon was a flop, money would of been better spent modifying the rodent to be “insurance compliant”

They repeatedly tried to do that and failed.
Extra belts, brakes and brake systems meant the ride car weight snapped the chain, and people still kept complaining.
Better dead than tamed.

The only way of saving BPB is to go back to ticket rides, I can't see any other way.

The above stats from Shakey are really interesting. I’ve followed the forum for a long time but haven’t posted before. I just joined now as the above is a good way for me to segue into something I’ve been thinking about lately:

I’ve been thinking about how asset depreciation may or may not impact their finances. I believe depreciation is considered an expense on the annual income statement, and the reason I’m interested is that while depreciation is an “expense”, its not something which is “paid” for and therefore doesn’t impact cash flow or their finances much in practice.

In the industry they’re in, I’d imagine they’d have significant depreciation to record each year.

So basically, my query is, does the retained profit take this into consideration? And if not, do you think the pleasure beach’s losses would otherwise be profits if not for depreciation?

James

MattyH said:

The only way of saving BPB is to go back to ticket rides, I can't see any other way.

Click to expand...

As much I’d hate to be paying out for each ride sadly Pay Per Ride would make the place a lot better, for one customer satisfaction would shoot up as the park now have incentive to make an effort as every ride that’s down is lost money.
Another thing is park hours would have to become flexible, if you’ve got a day with a thousand people in the park are you really going to turf them out at 6pm when they are literally queuing up to spend money!

Sadly I doubt they’d ever go back to that way of life

People would still need to actually visit the park for them to make any money from pay per ride.

It's just not as popular anymore.

Blackpool itself in recent years has had increased footfall, the Beach has had a drop in visitors.
Ten quid entry has killed off the casual visitor trade.
Fiver entry, with a free hot/cold drink and a cake voucher, and three quid a ride for the coasters, would bring back the punters in droves.
The wristband system has failed the park overall, it is a seaside funfair, not a theme park.

I think that perhaps the overall profitable run between 2000 and 2005 symbolises relative harmony between the options to buy a wristband or pay-per-ride.

From 2009 and onwards it was no longer free to visit the pleasure beach to just walk around. Looks like it all went down hill since then. Maybe they should bring back free entry, with the choice of wrist band or pay per ride.

James5696 said:

The above stats from Shakey are really interesting. I’ve followed the forum for a long time but haven’t posted before. I just joined now as the above is a good way for me to segue into something I’ve been thinking about lately:

I’ve been thinking about how asset depreciation may or may not impact their finances. I believe depreciation is considered an expense on the annual income statement, and the reason I’m interested is that while depreciation is an “expense”, its not something which is “paid” for and therefore doesn’t impact cash flow or their finances much in practice.

In the industry they’re in, I’d imagine they’d have significant depreciation to record each year.

So basically, my query is, does the retained profit take this into consideration? And if not, do you think the pleasure beach’s losses would otherwise be profits if not for depreciation?

James

Click to expand...

Welcome to the party James

I would guess that asset depreciation is not part of the figures I quoted (but as I already pointed out - I am no accountant). The Retained Profit/Loss is worded as "Total comprehensive profit/loss" in the last few years but I think it is the same thing. It looks like this includes interest payments , dividends paid out and "ordinary acivities" whatever that encompasses.

From the figures it does look like the walk round charge has had a detrimental impact on the park but the 2008 recession will have definitely been a factor in the returns from 2009 and a couple of years after that.

The pay per ride v pay one price argument is debated a lot on here but I don't think wrist bands alone have caused a problem for the park. The trouble started when ride tickets became too expensive when added to the walk round charge.

Almost all other seaside parks make both systems work successfully and people expect seaside funfairs to be free to get in.

I realise Amanda has had some bad luck with the recession and now covid, but you cannot get away from this....

From 1987 to March 2005
Operating profit: £25,243,000
Overall profit: £7,146,000

From April 2005 onwards
Operating loss: -£11,557,000
Overall loss: -£17,230,000

There is also the matter of what I assume is a big loan for Icon to be paid off over the coming years. And I suspect the next set of accounts are not going to be pretty !

Maybe it just all went wrong when big JR left !

The reasons for the entry charge around the security and anti social behaviour issues they once had are well documented here, but I wonder if those same issues would persist now? The resort has changed a lot in the years since the charge was introduced, I'm not sure it is the centre of deborchary it once was? Are there other factors which necessitate the theme park pricing model in the eyes of the park management?

Good point.
I had my pocket picked on the Beach on Grand National day about 20 years ago.
Reported immediately to security and the police, police said there were dozens of crime reports on every busy day, and that the group of pickpockets would have moved on after thirty minutes, to avoid detection, probably to Aintree for the big race.
Have heard loudspeaker warnings of pickpockets behind the Tower in recent years..."There are pickpockets working this are now."
Now you get your pocket picked electronically.

If you keep the turnstiles and “security check” would that be enough to deter some percentage of trouble makers? Obviously you’re on CCTV and the delay of entering means there’s a good enough image of you, if you were unfortunate enough to suffer a crime and gave enough of a description then it would be easy to get an image of the person.

Plastic Person said:

Ooof, look at 2006. You can certainly see when the creditors came in after the death of WGT.

Interesting to see the impact that new rides have on the profit margin. Valhalla seemingly failed to capture the imagination in its debut year in the way that more visible rides like The Big One and Playstation/Ice Blast did, but become a sleeper hit. The same could be true of Icon, which was marketed poorly, but it's too early to tell, given the pandemic.

The walkaround fee clearly had a huge historical effect. I still don't think they should or can revert, but it'd be difficult to make an argument otherwise.

I do worry about the financial future of BPB.

Click to expand...

I don't know if the loss due to the walk around fee would be off set by the improvement in the park atmosphere but not allowing all and sundry to just wander around. They would also have to employ people to check the bags and monitor who is coming in and out.

ringo said:

If you keep the turnstiles and “security check” would that be enough to deter some percentage of trouble makers? Obviously you’re on CCTV and the delay of entering means there’s a good enough image of you, if you were unfortunate enough to suffer a crime and gave enough of a description then it would be easy to get an image of the person.

Click to expand...

Why would it? I mean it would stop people taking weapons most likely but its metal detector not a chav detector. They could walk in with no weapons and still find ways to be a right pain in the backside by annoying paying guests and staff. Blackpool has a high level of people with drug problems as well so there is that too. Blackpool is very deprived because people flock there because it was the cheapest rent in the country.

As for the CCTV, sure you could get a photos of them, but by that point Johnny Rotten could be fare gone and if he's 15 years old, he'll get a slap of the wrists on his merry way. What good does that do the customer who has had their wallet pinched. They'll spread this message on to friends and it will create a negative impression of the park.

Apparently free entry is not good for the school trip market either. I feel like every school in Manchester at least has an end of year trip to either Towers or Blackpool which has to be good business for them.

Very sad looking through those numbers if it's a true reflection

Valhalla seemed to turn around a couple years of losses for 5 years decent profits, though not big retained profits. The sale of Southport seems to explain the big boost in 2005 (that isn't from the operating profit), until 2006 when millions paid out.

There seemed to be a sudden drop in operating profit after Geoffrey died, a year of turmoil before starting to climb back up, but immediately hit hard by the recession. This seemed to kill of BPB's fortunes until 2014/15, then hit by more big losses in recent years. Not an easy journey at all

I don't think Icon alone can save them, which isn't great for such a big investment. I hope they still have enough to turn around their fortunes, and that covid isn't the final nail.

It's not a chav detector, or a mental detector, Ms Ribena...could be a metal detector though.

10 years of the tories and in particular the acceleration of zero work hr contracts certainly hasn't helped the park. People simply not as flush as they were 10 to 15 years ago.

Lack of investment in the park another huge issue.

And finally a real big one is that Blackpool in general is simply getting tackier and more naff by the year. It feels like the whole town is stuck in a time warp of the 1990's. Lots of people choose to go elsewhere these days.

Another thing to note is that even though Blackpool’s visitor numbers have reportedly increased since the 1990s, I don’t think these increases are coming from the sort of demographic who would be interested in visiting the Pleasure Beach.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression that a lot of visitors to Blackpool these days are either older people looking for a relaxing seaside holiday or groups of younger people coming to Blackpool for its bars and clubs. I’m guessing that neither of these groups would be especially interested in visiting the Pleasure Beach, so this may be why the park has landed itself in the position it is in now. In terms of demographics that would be interested in Pleasure Beach, such as younger families and possibly families with older children, I’m thinking that far less of these types of people visit Blackpool today than they did in the park’s heyday of the 1990s. These days, family holidays tend to be to places abroad like Spain, Florida, or somewhere else exotic, and even in terms of Britain, coastlines like Devon, Cornwall and Pembrokeshire are seemingly more popular among families looking for a taste of the sea than the North West.

Raw visitor numbers to Blackpool are not necessarily the most important indicator of the potential pool of Pleasure Beach visitors, in my opinion; I think it’s worth delving in deeper and looking at the changes in the demographic visiting Blackpool.

I admittedly can’t use any statistics to back up what I’m saying, but I’m making these guesses based on my own anecdotal evidence from when I stayed in Blackpool in August 2019. To me, it didn’t seem as though there were many families in and around Blackpool; as I said above, many of the visitors seemed to either be older people or groups of younger people more interested in Blackpool’s bars and clubs.

It is sad, as this decline is seemingly through no fault of the park’s or Blackpool’s. I think the park is amazing, and really deserves more visitor numbers than it gets.