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2025: General Discussion

I was thinking earlier about how Alton Towers is run:
  • Games - outsourced
  • F&B - outsourced
  • Entertainments - being outsourced(?)
Unless I've missed something, that just leaves retail, operations and technical services in house. As we know the last two were absolutely amazing last season.

Perhaps they should try outsourcing those as well and see if that improves things 🫠
 
Alsty said:
I was thinking earlier about how Alton Towers is run:
  • Games - outsourced
  • F&B - outsourced
  • Entertainments - being outsourced(?)
Unless I've missed something, that just leaves retail, operations and technical services in house. As we know the last two were absolutely amazing last season.

Perhaps they should try outsourcing those as well and see if that improves things 🫠
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised to see retail being outsourced somehow 🤔

Leaving the park operations and possibly technical services as the only things that aren't outsourced.
 
Alsty said:
I was thinking earlier about how Alton Towers is run:
  • Games - outsourced
  • F&B - outsourced
  • Entertainments - being outsourced(?)
Unless I've missed something, that just leaves retail, operations and technical services in house. As we know the last two were absolutely amazing last season.

Perhaps they should try outsourcing those as well and see if that improves things 🫠
Click to expand...

The on ride photography is also outsourced so all those outlets aren’t ran by Towers.
 
If you consider what elements have already been outsourced (F&B, games, photos), it’s things that generate income. You could say they operate as concessions and so Merlin can “sell” those contracts to generate income for themselves.

If they were to outsource maintenance say, they’d have to pay that third party, rather than it being capable of them generating a revenue from. I’m not saying they won’t eventually end up doing that, and we’re potentially seeing the start of that with ents, MMM etc, but it’s at least interesting that the outsourcing focus has been on revenue generatIon up until now.
 
venny said:
If you consider what elements have already been outsourced (F&B, games, photos), it’s things that generate income. You could say they operate as concessions and so Merlin can “sell” those contracts to generate income for themselves.

If they were to outsource maintenance say, they’d have to pay that third party, rather than it being capable of them generating a revenue from. I’m not saying they won’t eventually end up doing that, and we’re potentially seeing the start of that with ents, MMM etc, but it’s at least interesting that the outsourcing focus has been on revenue generatIon up until now.
Click to expand...
That’s interesting to note.

Perhaps we’re seeing the outsourcing of things like entertainments because the cost of employing people and managing these things in-house now outweighs the cost of hiring an external supplier to handle it, for whatever reason? Maybe things like the recent tax increases on employers imposed by the government have tipped the balance the other way?
 
Matt N said:
Perhaps we’re seeing the outsourcing of things like entertainments because the cost of employing people and managing these things in-house now outweighs the cost of hiring an external supplier to handle it, for whatever reason? Maybe things like the recent tax increases on employers imposed by the government have tipped the balance the other way?
Click to expand...

Maybe. Altough this does appear to be a global change, so the impact of UK tax changes might not be the main driver here.

Probably more that when you scale up the savings to a global level they are more attractive.

I would imagine something like tech services would be far more specialised at each attraction due to the different mix of rides and manufacturers versus something like shows where you could roll out the same show across all Lego parks for example and spread the back office costs across all parks instead of them each producing and designing their own shows.
 
Matt N said:
That’s interesting to note.

Perhaps we’re seeing the outsourcing of things like entertainments because the cost of employing people and managing these things in-house now outweighs the cost of hiring an external supplier to handle it, for whatever reason? Maybe things like the recent tax increases on employers imposed by the government have tipped the balance the other way?
Click to expand...

You re still vicariously paying those wages (and NI) even if you outsource so that isn’t really the issue. The theoretical benefit of outsourcing is you move the risk to another company, in Merlins case it’s probably the ability to say to potential investors “if the brown stuff hits we can easily carve off these elements (ents) without a huge redundancy bill and bad press”. Also particularly in America rather than having wage negotiation internally they can just tender a cheaper contract out and by default the winning company will be paying the staff less.
 
owenstreet7 said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see retail being outsourced somehow

Leaving the park operations and possibly technical services as the only things that aren't outsourced.
Click to expand...

The risky, expensive parts. Like railtrack for theme parks.

It will be the hotels next. Alton Towers Hotel bought to you by Premier Inn.

It’s a horrendous way to run a business like this. Are Disney, Universal, Europa, Efteling, Phantasialand, Port Aventura, Asterix, Walibi doing this? It’s like a sickness that runs across lots of businesses in the UK. It’s being stripped of cash and funds, run badly and outsourcing everything. See the NHS, the railways, schools, care homes, councils etc etc.

This stupid course they’ve self themselves with MAP, meaningless gate prices, lack of long term plan, Aramark, outsourcing, lack of investment, land rental deals, cutting entertainment, dissolving Merlin studios, paying to use other IPs have all led to this appalling situation.

Excuse me whilst I doubt Merlin has discovered a master stroke in running theme parks.

On a closer to home point, I thought fireworks last year was one the best shows I’ve seen in a while and perfectly exemplified the effort, narrative and character that had gone into building the nemesis story over 18 months. It was unique, funny, charming, story driven and distinctly Alton. Now that team has been dismantled and I’m sure we will go back to outsourced “jukebox” fireworks, rather than the longer term story driven projects as promised by the marketing team.

The place is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, in chains with a bag over its head until the clowns in London learn how to actually run a decent business. This will get worse. They don’t have the answers I’m afraid. Or undo the problems they’ve created for themselves.
 
Ash said:
The risky, expensive parts. Like railtrack for theme parks.

It will be the hotels next. Alton Towers Hotel bought to you by Premier Inn.

It’s a horrendous way to run a business like this. Are Disney, Universal, Europa, Efteling, Phantasialand, Port Aventura, Asterix, Walibi doing this? It’s like a sickness that runs across lots of businesses in the UK. It’s being stripped of cash and funds, run badly and outsourcing everything. See the NHS, the railways, schools, care homes, councils etc etc.

This stupid course they’ve self themselves with MAP, meaningless gate prices, lack of long term plan, Aramark, outsourcing, lack of investment, land rental deals, cutting entertainment, dissolving Merlin studios, paying to use other IPs have all led to this appalling situation.

Excuse me whilst I doubt Merlin has discovered a master stroke in running theme parks.

On a closer to home point, I thought fireworks last year was one the best shows I’ve seen in a while and perfectly exemplified the effort, narrative and character that had gone into building the nemesis story over 18 months. It was unique, funny, charming, story driven and distinctly Alton. Now that team has been dismantled and I’m sure we will go back to outsourced “jukebox” fireworks, rather than the longer term story driven projects as promised by the marketing team.

The place is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, in chains with a bag over its head until the clowns in London learn how to actually run a decent business. This will get worse. They don’t have the answers I’m afraid. Or undo the problems they’ve created for themselves.
Click to expand...
Outsourcing hotels might be one thing that makes sense eg like all Universal Orlando’s hotels are Loews. Leave the hotels to the companies with hotel experience
 
Ash said:
It’s a horrendous way to run a business like this. Are Disney, Universal, Europa, Efteling, Phantasialand, Port Aventura, Asterix, Walibi doing this?
Click to expand...
Universal have their hotels run by Loews. Also photography in the Universal parks is an external company.

Disney have A LOT of concessions running restaurants and similar in their parks (especially Epcot) and the Coronado Springs hotel restaurants are run by an outside company. Some other shops in Disney parks are third-party too as well as some other bits (I think things like caricature artists).
 
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jon81uk said:
Disney have A LOT of concessions running restaurants and similar in their parks (especially Epcot) and the Coronado Springs hotel restaurants are run by an outside company. Some other shops in Disney parks are third-party too as well as some other bits (I think things like caricature artists).
Click to expand...

And don't forget that Disney also outsource a lot of their entertainment production, television development and a lot of Disney Cruise Line entertainment too.
 
Ash said:
The risky, expensive parts. Like railtrack for theme parks.

It will be the hotels next. Alton Towers Hotel bought to you by Premier Inn.

It’s a horrendous way to run a business like this. Are Disney, Universal, Europa, Efteling, Phantasialand, Port Aventura, Asterix, Walibi doing this? It’s like a sickness that runs across lots of businesses in the UK. It’s being stripped of cash and funds, run badly and outsourcing everything. See the NHS, the railways, schools, care homes, councils etc etc.

This stupid course they’ve self themselves with MAP, meaningless gate prices, lack of long term plan, Aramark, outsourcing, lack of investment, land rental deals, cutting entertainment, dissolving Merlin studios, paying to use other IPs have all led to this appalling situation.

Excuse me whilst I doubt Merlin has discovered a master stroke in running theme parks.

On a closer to home point, I thought fireworks last year was one the best shows I’ve seen in a while and perfectly exemplified the effort, narrative and character that had gone into building the nemesis story over 18 months. It was unique, funny, charming, story driven and distinctly Alton. Now that team has been dismantled and I’m sure we will go back to outsourced “jukebox” fireworks, rather than the longer term story driven projects as promised by the marketing team.

The place is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, in chains with a bag over its head until the clowns in London learn how to actually run a decent business. This will get worse. They don’t have the answers I’m afraid. Or undo the problems they’ve created for themselves.
Click to expand...
I haven't thought about the hotels - I didn't think we should be giving Merlin anymore ideas but it actually seems quite plausible for a UK hotel chain to be running the Merlin hotels.

Premier Inn running the hotels would actually be better than what's offered now.
 
Ironically outsourcing can be beneficial and I think the hotels are the one area it would work for Merlin. If you outsource because you think an external partner has the expertise you lack then it can be win win. It’s possible this could be the same with entertainment (I doubt however Merlin will have a contract that is anything other than cost management). The food outsourcing baffles me, sure it’s fine if you want someone to do something very specific (such as eastern express), but the type of food Aramark can provide is nothing different to in house and adds a layer of extra profit generation.
 
Well the breakfast at a premier inn is far better than anything they serve you for breakfast atm.

I don’t understand why food across the park is outsourced, surely they can find a team or really good chefs to come up with food concepts across the park, themed/named to slot into their specific areas then just scale it up.

Refresh every so often.
 
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