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Is it over for MMM?

I think the bigger question that’s above the current contemporary issues with Merlin is how come Alton Towers seems to keep go into the same cycles of stagnation?

Bagshaws, then Broome, then Tussuads, then Varney-era Merlin and now current Merlin. The owners always neglect the place as business interest is placed elsewhere, new management sweeps in with a load of new investment which works for a little while and then the park eventually becomes stagnant again.

What is it about the structure of the business that makes it so cyclical?
 
Bert2theSpark said:
I think the bigger question that’s above the current contemporary issues with Merlin is how come Alton Towers seems to keep go into the same cycles of stagnation?

Bagshaws, then Broome, then Tussuads, then Varney-era Merlin and now current Merlin. The owners always neglect the place as business interest is placed elsewhere, new management sweeps in with a load of new investment which works for a little while and then the park eventually becomes stagnant again.

What is it about the structure of the business that makes it so cyclical?
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Growth. Businesses need to grow. It's the con of capitalism. Growth at all costs. Unfortunately growth leads to distraction.

The markets and investors don't like stagnation. Businesses have to grow to ensure that profits are made on the investment, rather than just equal returns.

Netflix's issues on Wall Street related entirely to a slow down in their growth, not customers leaving. Just not as many people were signing up as predicted, or needed to keep investors happy. People were still signing up, growth was still happening, just not quickly enough.

The quickest way to grow is to buy another asset, and so on and so on.
 
Ben Anderson said:
Closing MMM doesnt surprise me. The latest government budget will just add fuel to the fire on that one.
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I doubt the budget had anything to do with it, the hand wringing from businesses over the NI increase is just noise as they know it will hit their profit margins, but ask any sensible economist and they all say we need to nudge the wealth distribution back from the wealthy to the workers soon anyway otherwise history tells us economies start to collapse.

Anyway slightly off topic.
 
Worth saying if it not said already, Studios North was shown as space to be redeveloped on the LTDP
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Everywhere. Aramark also make prison food.

... Alton gets the leftovers.
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Except the fact they run prison facilities doesn’t mean they serve “prison food”. Although both may use Brakes as a supplier.
Aramark also run catering at a lot of universities and stadiums in the USA.

In a similar way that companies like Benugo run catering operations in many museums and galleries, as well as company canteens and similar. Or Baxerstorey who do a lot of university outlets plus company canteens and some public venues like zoos.
Or Compass group who do company canteens, universities & stadiums but also NHS hospitals, doesn't mean you will get hospital food at a corporate event.
 
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DiogoJ42 said:
Everywhere. Aramark also make prison food.

... Alton gets the leftovers.
Click to expand...
Aramark manage a handful of catering facilities, in mostly private prisons, in this country. The food is sourced from Booker, through an HMPPS contract (owned by Tesco). The food is prepared, cooked and served by the prisoners themselves.

Aramark is a middle management services company
 
Even though I have many critical points to make about Merlin (as I often joke about on this forum). The talk of Alton being run by a smaller company or even as an independent would probably make matters worse. It probably needs to be part of a big group to have a secure future.

I feel for the people who will lose their jobs. But it doesn't make sense to have MMM at towers, it's so far away from anything else (if they make bits for other parks). They will hopefully keep people like John Burton on, who will just probably be shipped to Merlin corporate offices.

I will give them we have had Haunted House, Skyride, Hex and Nemesis sorted out. Not cheap projects, and so far (other than Strictly Come Hex) all has been good. Hopefully they will improve that during the off season.
 
Ben Anderson said:
Even though I have many critical points to make about Merlin (as I often joke about on this forum). The talk of Alton being run by a smaller company or even as an independent would probably make matters worse. It probably needs to be part of a big group to have a secure future.

I feel for the people who will lose their jobs. But it doesn't make sense to have MMM at towers, it's so far away from anything else (if they make bits for other parks). They will hopefully keep people like John Burton on, who will just probably be shipped to Merlin corporate offices.

I will give them we have had Haunted House, Skyride, Hex and Nemesis sorted out. Not cheap projects, and so far (other than Strictly Come Hex) all has been good. Hopefully they will improve that during the off season.
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Merlin Magic Making have their primary offices in London, in between Acton and Shepard's Bush, which is where the majority of the team is located.

The site at Alton Towers is known as Studios North and has been a workshop, primarily for theming pieces, for many years. The construction of most of these pieces is now outsourced.
 
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