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Drayton Manor Park

It will be interesting to see what this means for the park. I think this is the best scenario rather than the park going into hard administration and shutting down all operations. The group also own West Mids Safari Park and Pleasurewood Hills so maybe we'll see some new investments soon.
 
Ciaran said:
William Bryan is staying on as Managing Director, however sadly this does confirm the departure of the rest of the Bryan family from the park.
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This only confirms their departure as directors. The blog indicates the family will "remain a key part of the management structure under the new ownership"
 
Craig said:
This only confirms their departure as directors. The blog indicates the family will "remain a key part of the management structure under the new ownership"
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George Bryan is no longer involved in the park, and Colin Bryan is close to retirement and so won't be actively involved anymore. They may still be consulted about investment decisions, but other than that they don't really have much involvement anymore.
 
Ciaran said:
George Bryan is no longer involved in the park, and Colin Bryan is close to retirement and so won't be actively involved anymore. They may still be consulted about investment decisions, but other than that they don't really have much involvement anymore.
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You stated this confirms the departure of the rest of the family from the park, when the blog states the family will still be involved. On what level that involvement is in future remains to be seen, but just clarifying what was said on the official site.

In any case, it's good to see a company already involved in animal attractions coming on board. I was concerned with a rumoured Mellor's deal that the zoo would be wound down, but hopefully it will now stick around. I do have concerns on the level of investment Looping Group provides their attractions, but hopefully they'll work on a plan to improve what they're keeping and get rid of the stuff that's not park of their future plans rather than leave it to rot.
 
Funny when you come to think about it how things go full circle. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t someone leave the zoo position at Drayton to start up WMSP?. Even tho it’s changed hands since then just funny how they are now being run together.
 
Would have preferred Mellors partnership.

But nonetheless, glad the park is saved and is going into good hands, so thankful it’s not a merlin buy-out.
 
Alton Towers is Merlin's flagship park, look at how much damage Merlin has done to it in the last ten years. Flagship park doesn't really mean anything.
 
Ooh, this could be exciting! I can’t say I’ve visited any of Looping Group’s other theme parks, but they seem to be making nice changes to parks like Pleasurewood Hills, and I think Bagatelle over in France has had some nice investment into it as of late!
 
Thameslink Rail said:
Alton Towers is Merlin's flagship park, look at how much damage Merlin has done to it in the last ten years. Flagship park doesn't really mean anything.
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I’m not really sure Alton Towers is Merlin’s flagship park. Gardaland is arguably Merlin’s flagship park these days (at least in terms of guest figures), and that seems very well-kept and pretty well invested into from what I’ve seen of it!

Anyway, this should bring long-awaited financial stability to Drayton at the very least, and they say that they have “ambitious investment plans” for the park!
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
 
Matt N said:
I’m not really sure Alton Towers is Merlin’s flagship park. Gardaland is arguably Merlin’s flagship park these days (at least in terms of guest figures), and that seems very well-kept and pretty well invested into from what I’ve seen of it!

Anyway, this should bring long-awaited financial stability to Drayton at the very least, and they say that they have “ambitious investment plans” for the park!
EDIT: Sorry for double posting!
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I don't think flag ship means solely visitor numbers in Merlin's case else it would probably be Legoland?
 
imanautie said:
I don't think flag ship means solely visitor numbers in Merlin's case else it would probably be Legoland?
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Regardless, I definitely think Gardaland is more of a flagship park for Merlin than Towers these days, personally.

Anyway, the fact that Looping Group is calling it their “flagship park” and placing emphasis on this fact, as well as talking about “ambitious development plans”, sounds quite promising to me!
 
I suspect 'ambitious plans' might just be press / PR talk.

They will certainly tidy Drayton up and get things fixed, but if you look at all Parks in their portfolio, there isnt anything ground breaking to write home about that they have bought in.

It will certainly help save Drayton but I simply can't envisage much new anytime soon.
 
Without dragging things too off topic, flagship can mean many things to be honest. Biggest park in terms of size, visitors or simply just the prestige the place carries. Whilst I don't think Merlin have ever named a flagship park, Alton features heavily in comparison to other parks in the RTP portfolio so is considered by most to be their flag ship park.

In terms of Drayton, this is clearly a huge deal to Looping Group as well as the park itself. It'll be their biggest park in terms of visitor numbers and the one that probably carries the greatest prestige too. They're bound to consider it their flagship attraction for that alone.

I am in agreement that the press release is very much talking things up. We won't see any massive investment any time soon. They'll likely spend time over closed season getting things tidied up and improved and then maybe we'll be clearer on the park's future direction in terms of the thrill market. That's probably as good as we're going to get for 2021.
 
I’m not saying that they’re suddenly going to find the budget for a Lech clone or RMC Raptor for 2021 or anything, but I think that in the medium to long term (maybe within the next 5-10 years?), I could maybe see them going for something mid-size within their target market.

Maybe on the same sort of caliber as Accelerator would work?
 
A new for 2021 G-Force memorial lawn will suffice. Preferably with some new toilets slap bang in the middle to take a dump on what once was.

In all seriousness, it's good to see the park has been snapped up and done so efficiently without any of the Indiana Beach will it/won't it drama. A year of tidying, reassurance and general TLC won't go amiss, perhaps even get the rapids back open. Maybe even a solid event calendar would aid along the way.
 
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