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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

ScottishChris said:
Guest satisfaction is of fairly negligible consequence... because they don't need to chase a return visit.
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If guests keep returning to the park, but then don't spend at F&B options, that's measurable. They do need to chase a return visit. Alton Towers need people to keep coming to the park. Aramark need people to keep purchasing F&B. There's a finite pool of customers and they can dwindle away, or vote with their wallets. You may end up with a situation where the park is at capacity, but F&B revenue is shockingly low, at which point questions should be asked. Profit margin is all well and good, but you actually need to sell stuff to be able to see those profits.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
If guests keep returning to the park, but then don't spend at F&B options, that's measurable. They do need to chase a return visit. Alton Towers need people to keep coming to the park. Aramark need people to keep purchasing F&B. There's a finite pool of customers and they can dwindle away, or vote with their wallets. You may end up with a situation where the park is at capacity, but F&B revenue is shockingly low, at which point questions should be asked. Profit margin is all well and good, but you actually need to sell stuff to be able to see those profits.
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Merlin/AT’s finance teams will surely model capacity vs in-park revenue every year with a target (every X number of guests should spend a total of Y in park) taking into account an estimated percentage of regular visitors, return visitors and one-offers.

If they see in-park revenue falling compared to capacity, they’ll scrutinise and see where the in-park shortfall comes from, so it does benefit them to keep Aramark on a tight-ish lead.

Assuming the GP feels the same way as this forum, AT will have taken a bit of a reputation knock. Whilst an enthusiast group, we mostly retain a GP’s perspective on chicken tenders - so it’s likely a lot will feel the same as we do.

From a layman’s perspective, brand partnerships are the way out of this problem, assuming it has become a profitability problem. They can make a splash about the likes of Nando’s coming to the park, and convince visitors to leave the butties at home.

There’s a little psychological trick at play here, too, separating the AT spend and Nando’s spend in the minds of visitors.
 
Bringing brands back would be a good way to recover their reputation after this whole Aramark fiasco blows up in their face. Doesn’t just have to be the usual McDonald’s/BK/KFC either. Nando’s is a brilliant shout, Greggs would be popular.

Downsides would be probably no passholder discount if Thorpe Park is anything to go by, and there’s a chance they would charge the same or more.

But at least the quality would be better and more consistent. Which would make me personally more likely to spend on food on park, not every time but more often.

I know they sell jacket potatoes somewhere in cbeebies land, I’d imagine those would be really popular in the rest of the park as well, they’re missing yet another trick there to add a bit of variety to the quick service line up.
 
You have no chance of seeing McD's back. There is a long list of other brands you are not allowed on-site if you are a Mc'D's franchisee, with the exception of "unless they were always established prior to the franchise agreement being signed".

The list in the UK includes...
Burger King
Subway
Greggs
Costa Coffee
Wendys
Five Guys
Starbucks
etc....

Aramark may be able to try and dodge some of the above on the basis their in-house brands are not the same. But they wouldn't as a McD's franchise is subject to very strict pricing controls (as BK lost loads of business when they went onto the Motorways as franchises - mainly of Moto & Welcome Break). This earned them the "BK is expensive reputation".

Aramark would never sign a franchise agreement that would force them to undercut their own in-house brands on both quality and price. Just like you'd never see a Spoons type place on park that would undercut Woodcutters, RCR & the Hotel restaurants. Sorry folks, but we are stuck with the Aramark offer & pricing until Merlin either tell them to "sort it out", or give them the boot out of their parks full stop.

It's a crying shame as other parks with less financial muscle than Merlin - Europa Park for instance - can pull off very good F&B options. I have even witnessed Roland Mack in the Colosseo buffet in the evening sampling it to check the quality of the food. Ask Bianca when she last - or indeed if she has - sampled the standard evening food fare in ATH, Splash or CBeebies.
 
Chester Zoo has a pub in the middle of the Zoo' -it's called the Oakfield. It's food is pricey but really good, as are the drinks and atmosphere The amazing thing is, you really have to book in advance and be lucky to get a table. It should be the hospitality model for any attraction. If they could follow suit (The Old Chained Oak?!?) and build something like this over by the Galactica entrance it could be accessible in the park during opening hours, and remain accessible after hours for hotel guests etc. It could even remain open in to off season and - if modelled on the Oakfield - I am sure it would be popular.

The Oakfield at Chester Zoo | Contemporary British Pub and Restaurant

The Oakfield, a contemporary british pub at the heart of Chester Zoo, welcomes you to enjoy food and drink at the restored Oakfield Manor. Book a table now.
www.theoakfield.org www.theoakfield.org
 
ScottishChris said:
Chester Zoo has a pub in the middle of the Zoo' -it's called the Oakfield. It's food is pricey but really good, as are the drinks and atmosphere The amazing thing is, you really have to book in advance and be lucky to get a table. It should be the hospitality model for any attraction. If they could follow suit (The Old Chained Oak?!?) and build something like this over by the Galactica entrance it could be accessible in the park during opening hours, and remain accessible after hours for hotel guests etc. It could even remain open in to off season and - if modelled on the Oakfield - I am sure it would be popular.

The Oakfield at Chester Zoo | Contemporary British Pub and Restaurant

The Oakfield, a contemporary british pub at the heart of Chester Zoo, welcomes you to enjoy food and drink at the restored Oakfield Manor. Book a table now.
www.theoakfield.org www.theoakfield.org
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They already have a unique restaurant experiance next to Galactica that is accesible outside of park hours, its Rollercoaster Restaurant. The issue is that the experiance of food arriving by rollercoaster is great but the food that arrives is terrible. All they need to focus on is food and ingrediant quality and charging a fair price.
 
jon81uk said:
They already have a unique restaurant experiance next to Galactica that is accesible outside of park hours, its Rollercoaster Restaurant. The issue is that the experiance of food arriving by rollercoaster is great but the food that arrives is terrible. All they need to focus on is food and ingrediant quality and charging a fair price.
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Yep - I'm always amazed how popular it is when the reviews are pretty dire. My thoughts is 'pub food' is a very British thing and isn't actually that complicated. Having multiple places open late is not a bad thing, and I feel the 'resort' could do with something with a bit of atmosphere and things going on after 6pm. The hotels are pretty much just hotels with not much to do after park close [in my opinion].

The concept and (most importantly) the execution of The Oakfield at Chester Zoo is just great and must make the place an absolute fortune... and almost nobody complains about it.
 
likewise one of the few good things about Mingo is the really nice pub with cask beer, food and indoor/outdoor seating right at the back of the park.
Spent a few happy hours there while the mates kids spent hours dealing with dodgy ops.
 
For the first time I took a sandwich with me today, I usually always eat on park at any theme/amusement park I go to. Prices are ridiculous for the quality of the product.

Later on I fancied some chips - the chicken strips/wings/chips place in Forbidden Valley actually sells chips on their own - £2.70 regular or £3.50 large - so with discount a large cost £2.80 which is actually not bad for a theme park price for what I got. However the service was so bad, just took forever for food to very slowly come out, then sit on the side for ages before somebody would let you have your meal.

Another weird thing going on now is if you pay by card you get charged for anything from an Aramark outlet twice, apparently the second charge disappears eventually but how is it possible to get so much wrong.

Not wanting to do the "Towers vs BPB" thing but for the price of 5 chicken strips, large chips and a drink at Towers I could get a lovely half rotisserie chicken, fries and a drink. Alton Towers should at least make sure Aramark's offering is on par with other parks.
 
ScottishChris said:
Yep - I'm always amazed how popular it is when the reviews are pretty dire. My thoughts is 'pub food' is a very British thing and isn't actually that complicated. Having multiple places open late is not a bad thing, and I feel the 'resort' could do with something with a bit of atmosphere and things going on after 6pm. The hotels are pretty much just hotels with not much to do after park close [in my opinion
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Yep it’s not the venue that’s the issue, rollercoaster restaurant is pretty good as a place to eat and experience. But AT even before Aramark were trying to serve the lowest quality ingredients they could could get away with at a price too high for that quality (price would be fine if the quality was better), now Aramark have pushed the quality even lower and the price even higher.
 
Simple solution, go the Alton Bridge Hotel pub for lunch. Minutes away from the park, with fresh, home cooked food at a good price and it’s excellent.

The Talbot pub behind is a real ale drinkers pub and is also great. There’s few better places to sit on a summers day in that part of the world.

You’re helping a local business and tell Merlin stick their garbage food up their arse. It’s a win win
 
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