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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: 2023 Discussion

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AT86 said:
BPB accounts up to March 2023 have been filed, so this essentially covers the 2022 season.

Things of note:

- Visitor numbers were down 20% versus 2021 season
- Turnover down from £39m to £32m
- Staffing costs make up 63% of overall costs, up from 52%
- Utility costs risen by 44%
- Overall they made a loss of £522k versus £8.6m profit in the previous year

Rising costs and lower visitor numbers is possibly the worst combo.

BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
Click to expand...

Disappointed, but not at all surprised. I'm sure BPB will be hoping it's a post-pandemic bubble before a return to normality.
If I'm honest, I would imagine 2023 to be worse unless they have found some serious savings. Valhalla operating again this year would surely add a large dent to the wallet.

The park are their own worst enemy, my friends and work colleagues all have a negative perception of BPB's pricing vs value. Any mention of BPB on social media always gets similar replies.
I'm probably in the minority but I do like pay one price, but there's something about the implementation that doesn't work. It's either too expensive to start with, or very little in it for the non-riders. Maybe a bit of both?
As a passholder there were many visits this year I'd left feeling I'd be pissed off if I'd paid on the door. Days where the ride availability has been poor, negative interactions with certain staff, or where the overall atmosphere wasn't great.


In other news - sorry I'm too lazy to go back a few pages to see if it was mentioned - The 2024 (provisional) opening hours are on the website. August in particular are later closes, there's a 9pm and 10pm, with 7pm being the earliest.
30th March and 25th May 24 also 9pm closes (bank holiday weekends).
 
Later openings seems pointless without changing the admission policy (and generally I am a sceptic that pay-per-ride, free walk-on entry is all plusses).
 
It's a perfect storm

Avalanche
Ice Blast
The Grand Prix
Revolution
And Steeplechase all coming to the end of thier operational life.

No idea where the money is going to come from to replace any of these and that's not including the rides scrapped over the last 10-15 years and not replaced. Worrying times ahead.
 
Relife said:
It's a perfect storm

Avalanche
Ice Blast
The Grand Prix
Revolution
And Steeplechase all coming to the end of thier operational life.

No idea where the money is going to come from to replace any of these and that's not including the rides scrapped over the last 10-15 years and not replaced. Worrying times ahead.
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Out of interest, how can you declare so conclusively that all of these rides are "coming to the end of their operational lives"? By the metric of age, wouldn't many of the woodies, dark rides and flat rides have hit that stage 40-50 years ago?

I think that Blackpool is a special case when it comes to older rides; given how the woodies have stuck around for the best part of 100 years and the likes of the Flying Machines and River Caves have operated for over 100 years, I wouldn't count out any older ride in the park just yet.
 
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Relife said:
It's a perfect storm

Avalanche
Ice Blast
The Grand Prix
Revolution
And Steeplechase all coming to the end of thier operational life.

No idea where the money is going to come from to replace any of these and that's not including the rides scrapped over the last 10-15 years and not replaced. Worrying times ahead.
Click to expand...
Ice Blast is the only one of these I can imagine scrapped, but all worthy of being on the list. It had work done this year which I can't imagine would have gone ahead if they were planning to get rid soon.

Avalanche, with its one-train service, simply doesn't meet the standard anymore, it's dated and not looking the best (I am aware the station had parts repainted in the final weeks of this season). Still, I would expect at least another 5 years minimum

Grand Prix must have spent most of this year closed, and when open I seen cars being pushed more than once. Likelihood of new cars/control system? Surely zero.

Personally, I think they should probably get rid of Skyforce. I've never, ever seen a proper queue for it. Its location within the park probably doesn't help. Sell it on and make a bit of cash, reduce a bit of cost.

There are other areas BPB are weak too. Food & drink isn't great. They might have a better offering than most UK parks, but there's a crucial flaw - 5 minutes outside the front gates there's just about every kind of cheap food you can ask for. Spoons, Mcdonalds, various chippies, ice cream, anything - All of which is cheaper, and arguably better.

Parking is usually about £18 at the Balmoral Rd car park, but you can park on the Promenade about 300 yards away for a tenner (or in various other well-known nearby locations for free...).
 
Surprised it wasn't a bigger loss actually - the general trend is that the park makes a loss, the hotels make a profit, and overall the group makes anywhere from a small loss to a reasonable profit. The previous year's £8m profit was a one-off due to VAT being cut to 5%, while the prices charged stayed the same or went up. Possibly also increased numbers as nobody was going abroad but I don't recall it being especially busy compared to the previous decade.
 
Relife said:
It's a perfect storm

Avalanche
Ice Blast
The Grand Prix
Revolution
And Steeplechase all coming to the end of thier operational life.

No idea where the money is going to come from to replace any of these and that's not including the rides scrapped over the last 10-15 years and not replaced. Worrying times ahead.
Click to expand...
Matt put it better, but says who exactly?
Any actual evidence out there?
There is no sign they are at the end of their operational life.
There is no perfect storm, only a self centred owner, who thinks she knows best, and will not take professional consultants advice on progress.
Without the bloody ice show fiasco, the park would have made a profit.
 
Matt N said:
Out of interest, how can you declare so conclusively that all of these rides are "coming to the end of their operational lives"? By the metric of age, wouldn't many of the woodies, dark rides and flat rides have hit that stage 40-50 years ago?

I think that Blackpool is a special case when it comes to older rides; given how the woodies have stuck around for the best part of 100 years and the likes of the Flying Machines and River Caves have operated for over 100 years, I wouldn't count out any older ride in the park just yet.
Click to expand...

Revolution is getting very unreliable and I heard rumours it was getting harder to maintain. Avalanche will probably limp on for a few years yet but is rough and has a poor throughput. Grand Prix is pretty much SBNO. Ice Blast is rumoured to be going at the end of the season. I threw in Steeplechase as it's an ancient arrow ride and I'd image parts are hard to come by. And it also sucks.

Wooden coasters and river caves are far easier to fix and maintain. The idea that the arrow coasters will live on for decades to come is extremely optimistic
 
Looping Group every time BPB publish their accounts....
giphy.gif
 
I don't think the drop in visitor numbers is surprising, neither was the rise in staffing costs or energy costs. The picture is not actually as bad as the headline numbers suggest though. A £0.5m loss can easily be overcome simply by getting people to buy tickets.... sounds daft, but hear me out.

Pleasure Beach's marketing for last season was absolutely abysmal. If they can turn this around a swing can be easily be obtained. I believe this is something they are [hopefully] looking at - jobs in marketing have been advertised
I ascertain that the answer is NOT 'walk around'/ non-rider tickets. The answer is to change people's perception of the park which, with good marketing, is a fairly straight-forward thing to do. BPB has one of the most unique and full-family friendly line up out there - it should easily justify the current ticket prices.

If I were in charge, I would look to reduce staffing levels. A great example is Revolution - why is an Op required on the reverse launch platform? It's 2024 - why can't this be covered by cameras and actioned from the main control booth? Better still - get shot of ticket scanning and you will free-up more wages.

Despite these number, it can be turned around pretty easily - if the will is there.
 
I agree that I don't think opening the gates up again and bringing back pay-per-ride would suddenly solve all of Blackpool's financial problems.

However, there is one factor to consider when comparing Blackpool Pleasure Beach to, say, Alton Towers, and that is precedent. Unlike the Merlin parks, Blackpool Pleasure Beach set a precedent of once having free entry and allowing anyone and everyone through the gates for no cost. And they then stopped. Inevitably, that will make people who used to be able to get in for free a bit angry, and they might now refuse to go in out of principle.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach is also in a location where it may benefit from walk-up trade, which isn't really a factor with the Merlin parks. I agree that going for full-on free entry/pay-per-ride comparable to the piers devalues the product relative to what it actually offers, but I'd argue that they may benefit from being a tad more pragmatic in terms of non-rider entry options. Other urban theme parks, such as Liseberg and Tivoli Gardens, manage to incorporate the best elements of both pay-one-price and pay-per-ride very successfully.

Although one thing I would counter is; while the park still made a loss in 2022, it does seem as though this loss is lower than the losses from years like 2019 and 2018, before the park removed the non-rider pass. Would this suggest that spend per capita has been boosted enough that it offsets the lower guest figures?
 
Matt N said:
However, there is one factor to consider when comparing Blackpool Pleasure Beach to, say, Alton Towers, and that is precedent. Unlike the Merlin parks, Blackpool Pleasure Beach set a precedent of once having free entry and allowing anyone and everyone through the gates for no cost. And they then stopped. Inevitably, that will make people who used to be able to get in for free a bit angry, and they might now refuse to go in out of principle.
Click to expand...
I return to a point I have made many, many times. This is down to brand awareness and marketing... or lack of. When the park moved to be a gated park, work should have been done to change the perception of what the place is. Merlin have done a fantastic job of this with their Blackpool midways -heck, they split everything in the Tower building into individual attractions and most people accepted this (and the increased cost and advance booking) thanks to the work they done changing expectation and perception.

I would also suggest that the majority of the target audience for BPB should now be of an age where paid entry should be the norm - the Pleasure Beach pass was introduced in 2009... 15 years ago!

I'm a stuck record here.... but where PB has massively failed is their marketing. Their physical product is good (a bit more investment in on-park entertainment is needed though), they are just very, very poor about advertising it.. and their brand. 1 year, no medaling from the Thompson's and a suitable budget and it should be easy for any half decent marketing pro to get the place busy again.
 
Paid entry was the norm...the loss of just paid entry must be costing them many many spending punters...my wife included...who is still owed her refund from 2020.
She used to spend about a grand a year on top of her pass...beer, tat, beer, food, arcade grabbers, beer, Christmas stuff, and beer.
Diamond (access) passes for £40 were stopped with Covid...that was the one reason given for stopping them, and the only reason given.
We were told they would be returning...by the admissions manager...when things returned to normal.
They haven't.
A big part of me not getting a Beach pass this year is that I'm bored of going without the good lady.
So I will drag her kicking and screaming to Thorpe, where we had a very good time last time.
 
The document for Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Holdings) Ltd is now on Companies House. We learn the pre-tax profit is £287k for the group


BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH (HOLDINGS) LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH (HOLDINGS) LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

That's quite a stark contrast to 2022, which was £10.6m profit
 
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