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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

We see Merlin making big steps forward with investment at the moment which is a good sign many people are saying it's the most investment we have seen in a short period ever.

But yet giving your food operations for every iconic attraction to a prison vendor is something I would have expected in late 2015/2016.
 
I personally like app ordering, it’s fine for casual sit down restaurants and theme parks. In the hotels or any premium venue I would expect table service.

I hope outsourcing backfires and they revert back to in-house operations and improve quality. Unfortunately in the UK, theme park food is known for being poor quality, so I can see Aramark sticking around for a while until we see a u-turn.
 
Some theme park food can be ok, Woodcutters and Crevettes come to mind locally, nothing like a nice healthy prawn salad, half a dozen oysters and a half bottle of champagne for lunch on a rainy day.
 
The only thing I hope it might bring is more choice to the park, towers really does lack that even compared to Thorpe or chessie. Unless you want burgers, chicken, pizza or a hot dog there isn’t much else on park. Pre smiler crash we had so much more choice (Mexican, noodles, sausage rolls/pasties, waffle fries! Etc).
 
It's clear that the palette of the British public has expanded way beyond what Alton Towers serve, as they happily invite a wider range of outside vendors in for no small portion of the year to serve on the lawns. But internally, they seem strictly averse to providing anything more than the 90s archetype of what theme park food could represent. Aramak being known for their speciality of prison food is beyond parody.

I am off to Phantasialand next weekend and actively looking forward to eating in Rutmors and Uhwerk, as well as the Mexican joint and Wintertraum stalls. These are all extremely popular and they're in Germany, where the national food palette can make a Ploughmans and a flask of hot Bovril taste positively exotic.
 
And so.... the great Aramark-flation begins. Even within the general inflation issues and pressures across society - Alton via Aramark have smashed it out of the park.

Popped to Alton this evening on a total whim with Mike - 10 % price increased on everything since they took over last week at every food and beverage outlet in the park, and similar rises elsewhere. It's blanket - and it's total. Some select items, such as some alchoholic drinks on park, are up by more.

Examples:

Flambo's now £25.25 (up from £22.95; 10% rise)
Prosecco bottle now £35.20 (up from £28.00 in the park; 26% rise)
Rollover Hotdog £7.15 (up from £6.50; 10% rise)
Pint of Corona now £6.50 (up from £5.90; 10% rise)
Pringles now £1.65 (up from £1.50; 10% rise)
Rump Steak at Woodcutters now £17.05 (up from £15.50; 10% rise)
Aperol Spritz at Ma Garritas now £10.45 (up from £9.50; 10% rise)
Flat White at coffee outlets on park now £3.85 (up from £3.50; 10% rise)
Large Latte/Capuccino on park now £4.05 (up from £3.65; 10% rise)

This can all be added to rises that went into place at the start of the 2022 season - and we'll see no doubt further rises for the 2023 season.

It's getting hard to not feel that Alton Towers is now a profiteering rip off for F&B. Coffee nearly £4, all the extortionate event food stalls and everything else - we're in a new era of costs for on park food and drink at Alton Towers - even with a passholder discount.
 
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Unless you're really well off financially you'd have to be a sucker to pay those full prices.

Imagine paying over £7 for a 20p bread roll and 30p frankfurter. It's not a joke to say that I would rather not eat until I'd left the park than subject myself to these sorts of prices (although I usually plan ahead and take food with me anyway).
 
It wouldn't too bad if the quality was there; perhaps giving Aramark the benefit of the doubt to see what they bring in for the 2023 season. But I am sceptical. Very sceptical.

What was funny is that some of the retail outlets are now undercutting the F&B ones. Coke at retail shops is 30p less than F&B outlets for a 500ml bottle because the Aramark Inflation hasn't hit the retail outlets... Pringles 15p less at shops vs. F&B outlets... It's clearly been a rush job, 3 large glasses of wine at Woodcutters will cost slightly LESS than buying the bottle...!
 
I'm still amazed that anyone buys them small pots of pringles anywhere let alone at towers...a large one was £1.25 in morrison's last week....admittedly the days of the large tubes at a pound which would always happen around Xmas or New year are long gone..



People should vote with their feet and not buy stuff on site yet they won't so know they have a market
 
This whole Aramark move is a prime example of where business fails the common man.

Outsource food to Aramark, Merlin make a pretty penny, Aramark need to make money for themselves too - and suddenly, you have more shareholders to satisfy. Who pays?

We do.

It's just like that ridiculous lease-back thing on the land the parks sit on with Nick Leslau.
 
Very slightly off-topic - but even the mighty Disney with their huge in-house food & beverage operation can let stuff slip through the net. Drive around the "Disney resort area" in Orlando and there are several Speedway filling [petrol] stations - these are allowed to sell food & drink at prices WAY below what Disney will happily rip you off for in one of their parks / Disney Springs.

Back on-topic, Aramark need to be very careful on the price front. Pretty much everyones budget is going to be stretched next year when the next two energy price rises kick in (Jan & April) - before you consider food inflation too. Merlin / Aramark were already getting very close to the price cusp that people will just turn around and say "no" to - especially if the quality of the food does not reflect the prices being charged.

I used to work for a motorway services operator & that £7.99 fish [admittedly not cod] and chips had a cost price of under £1. This was a couple of years ago, but shows the fleecing that can be done on food & beverage. A medium McDonalds value meal also had a total cost of under £1. These cost prices included the raw food cost, cooking it & staff costs.
 
F&B is just such an easy way for parks to make money, hence they can just keep upping the prices. The majority of guests will not bring their own food, therefore parks know that most guests will be spending.

£10.45 for an Aperol Spritz is criminal. That must be one of the most expensive Aperol Spritz out there!?

Alton Towers food and drink has always been expensive, and 20% annual pass discount has always brought it back down to a normal level. Now it looks like even with discount you’re going to be paying a small fortune.

No doubt prices will rise once again for the 2023 season.
 
The one price that might actually be okay if the quality doesn’t drop further is pizza buffet. My local Pizza Hut now does weekend buffet and its £13.99 at weekends or £18.99 with a drink and ice cream. Pretty sure the Merlin price hasn’t gone that high yet
 
I don’t agree that the margins in restaurant operations are massive. I’ve worked in the hospitality industry for 8 years, 6 in operations and 2 in marketing for a well-known casual dining brand. It’s true, there were good/healthy margins to be enjoyed in the past, but in recent times with the cost of gas, electricity, transporting of food & drink, and the general cost of food and drink, on top of rising labour costs, it’s an industry under extreme pressure right now. In the year to Feb 2022, our revenue was up globally on previous years to record levels, but we only just broke-even in terms of operating profit.

A chunk of operators are turning to order pay at table functionality to re-work their business model and reduce dependence on labour to cut costs and insulate customers from dramatic price increases way beyond the level of price increases that are currently happening. Order pay at table allows you to potentially, if executed well, reduce the number of people you need on a typical shift. It also has huge analytical, marketing and insights benefits.

I would still expect Towers/Merlin’s RTP restaurants to be making a decent profit because their prices are so inflated and the quality is so poor. But the restaurant industry right now is simply not one where you can enjoy huge margins.
 
I think it’s nice of towers to put all the picnic tables on the lawns for everyone as a lot of people will be bringing a picnic next year as opposed to buying it there.

I dread to think how much pizza pasta will be next year.

F&B went downhill once all the high street brands left the park (KFC, McDonalds etc). And it went downhill in the hotels once splash landings was built (Aberdeen Angus burgers in ATH when it opened).
 
The problem is it's a captive market. People who visit the parks regularly know what to expect, but if you're a family making your once a year visit you might be completely unaware of how poor and overpriced the options are. You could find yourself with little choice but to take the overpriced options or go hungry.

You can only vote with your feet if you are informed before you go
 
People that actually spend significant money on food in the parks tend to be upper-working to generally middle class, I’d say. I would guess they know how far they can get away with pushing prices.

Think there will always be the divide between those queuing for overpriced food and the rucksack carriers/back-to-the-car people.


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George W said:
But yet giving your food operations for every iconic attraction to a prison vendor is something I would have expected in late 2015/2016.
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This is such a boring narrative now. Yes they provide food in prisons, they also provide catering in a myriad of other locations including schools and sports stadiums. It's the nature of modern business, diversification makes complete sense - products and offerings are tailored appropriately. One assume they no longer serve gruel in prisons ... but if they did, that isn't going to be on the menu at Alton Towers (although you could argue it may well be an upgrade vs. some of the current offerings).

It is, perhaps, an admission that the food offerings aren't something that they excel at and outsourcing to a company that has it as part of their DNA is a sensible move. It's no different that outsourcing of your digital services like ticketing.
 
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