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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

TedShatner10 said:
plus the contracts with PepsiCo that may been signed by Tussauds around the time the Berlin Wall fell must've been getting harder and harder for Merlin to keep renewing....
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What contract with PepsiCo? They've always served Coke products and crisps have been Walkers and Pringles.
 
TedShatner10 said:
not the same flare as the food had at Paultons
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Beige, beige and more beige was served at the Superfans event. The burrito I had earlier in the day was the blandest thing I'd tasted for a while. Their food is fine, but it doesn't have "flare".
jon81uk said:
What contract with PepsiCo? They've always served Coke products and crisps have been Walkers and Pringles.
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He's alluding to PepsiCo's former ownership of KFC and Burger King, which was actually spun off into Yum! Foods in 2002 and doesn't hold much relevance. It also doesn't account for the agreement they had with McDonald's.

Walkers is owned by PepsiCo though, through their ownership of Lays. Pringles are Kellogg's / whatever they've changed their name to this week.

I also don't think the park actually had agreements with the fast foods brands themselves, didn't they just invite franchisees into the park? Regardless, Towers haven't had KFC/Pizza Hut/Burger King/McDonald's for over a decade now.
 
This is just a thought that popped into my head, and hopefully people will be able to shoot it down pretty quickly, but what if Alton originally lost the franchises such as McDonalds and Pizza Hut due to Towers' plans to start closing on certain weekdays quite a few years back? I can imagine if you were running a franchise and suddenly heard that you wouldn't be able to operate for a couple of days every week (of an already partial year of trading), it might not be a very good agreement or business opportunity anymore?

Or did Thorpe also start closing on certain weekdays and manage to keep their 'brands'? I honestly can't remember. I'd love to see the likes of McDonalds back though, as at least you know what you're getting as it's pretty standard everywhere.
 
The "brand partners" - so McDonalds / Pizza Hut & KFC signed a 10 year contract with Tussauds to open in 1998. When the contact came up for renewal (so end of 2007 season) Tussauds, now under DIC ownership, wanted to crank the unit rental rates up through the roof. So the brand partners just walked away. That is what happens when you are owned by an investment capital company (or publicly floated) - the accountants take control.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
He's alluding to PepsiCo's former ownership of KFC and Burger King, which was actually spun off into Yum! Foods in 2002 and doesn't hold much relevance. It also doesn't account for the agreement they had with McDonald's.
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Yum/PepsiCo never owned Burger King, their main brands are KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. There would have been some contract between PepsiCo/Yum and Tussauds to franchise/operate restaurants in their parks from 1998 to 2007. There would have been a separate deal with McDonalds or a franchisee. It seems the original Tussauds parks of AT and Chessington had a separate deal compared to Thorpe of course.
AT86 said:
McDonald’s went in 2007 and midweek closed dates didn’t start until 2016 - I don’t think there was any link.

Chessington and Thorpe often had closed dates midweek back in the 90s (and still do now) and they have both had various franchise fastfood locations over the years.
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I also think there was some desire to retain more control and a bigger share of the profits hence Tussauds/Merlin developed their own Burger Kitchen and Fried Chicken Co brands.
 
jon81uk said:
Yum/PepsiCo never owned Burger King, their main brands are KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. There would have been some contract between PepsiCo/Yum and Tussauds to franchise/operate restaurants in their parks from 1998 to 2007. There would have been a separate deal with McDonalds or a franchisee. It seems the original Tussauds parks of AT and Chessington had a separate deal compared to Thorpe of course.

I also think there was some desire to retain more control and a bigger share of the profits hence Tussauds/Merlin developed their own Burger Kitchen and Fried Chicken Co brands.
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I also remember there being some rather poor food hygiene reports from some of the outlets.
By centralising the food outlets to all being run by the same operator it meant that towers could take closer control over food hygiene standards.
 
Not sure on that one.
Food quality, quantity, cleanliness in the establishmnents and provision of service all nosedived after the loss of the brands in my personal experience.
The big McDonalds being the top example.
You used to be able to get fast food fast in there, quick, clean and competent...even on busy days.
Then it went in house, and we started our posh picnics after the first year or so.
 
rob666 said:
Not sure on that one.
Food quality, quantity, cleanliness in the establishmnents and provision of service all nosedived after the loss of the brands in my personal experience.
The big McDonalds being the top example.
You used to be able to get fast food fast in there, quick, clean and competent...even on busy days.
Then it went in house, and we started our posh picnics after the first year or so.
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2007 Food Hygiene issues

This is what I remember- sorry for the Mirror link!
 
The parks outside of the big Thorpe contracts moved in house to try and make more money. That's why BK went in the end. I don't believe the option was there to renew.
 
There were also some cleanliness issues, specifically in the Katanga Canyon KFC if I recall correctly. That along with criticism of the lack of healthy options was something that appeared in the press at the time.

The more things change, the more they stay the same…
 
From just a sentence in that article, it seems to suggest that the 'brand partners' were independent franchisees. So effectively there's no direct link between the brands themselves returning and poor performance, often a rumour of this forum, if Merlin were to operate the brands as a franchisee themselves. If anything, the 2007 situation is the same as now, where Aramark operate the food and not Merlin, but use the Merlin brands.
 
Matt.GC said:
From just a sentence in that article, it seems to suggest that the 'brand partners' were independent franchisees. So effectively there's no direct link between the brands themselves returning and poor performance, often a rumour of this forum, if Merlin were to operate the brands as a franchisee themselves. If anything, the 2007 situation is the same as now, where Aramark operate the food and not Merlin, but use the Merlin brands.
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Thank you for the well spotted vindication!
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I also don't think the park actually had agreements with the fast foods brands themselves, didn't they just invite franchisees into the park? Regardless, Towers haven't had KFC/Pizza Hut/Burger King/McDonald's for over a decade now.
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Matt.GC said:
From just a sentence in that article, it seems to suggest that the 'brand partners' were independent franchisees. So effectively there's no direct link between the brands themselves returning and poor performance, often a rumour of this forum, if Merlin were to operate the brands as a franchisee themselves. If anything, the 2007 situation is the same as now, where Aramark operate the food and not Merlin, but use the Merlin brands.
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Although I would assume there was some kind of overall agreement or the franchise was the same because Alton Towers and Chessington both added McDonalds and KFC/PizzaHut outlets at the same time and removed them at the same time. So it seems whatever the agreement was with whoever, it was jointly done for AT and CWoA.
 
Yep, a considerable number of caveats - must be in specific restaurants, on specific days, at specific times. Am planning a visit in the time period but it won’t be changing my mind on what I’m planning for food and drink.
 
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