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Looping Group- General Discussion

tech said:
Only seems to have come to light tonight, so details are thin on the ground. Here's the news as reported by the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce

Didn't see that coming!

Important to note that the sale seems to have concluded prior to the tragic accident that was reported last week.

Edit - for those of you who aren't fans of clicking things:
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Another successful North Staffordshire businessman with a colourful past…
 
Blackrock said:
Hopefully they’ll improve the numerous issues waterworld have had over the years such as cleanliness and overcrowding.

Interested to see what they do with the place but it really needs a massive deep clean in January or something.

Also never a bad thing to be out of that dodgy guys control
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I'd like to see the place cleaned up a bit, I'd like to see some better value offers, heck I'd like to be trusted to purchase a childs ticket for my kids rather than their current bizarre policy of charging everyone an adult rate and then offering a refund if you turn up and you're not in fact an adult.

I've always thought our Mo would have enjoyed quite the career at Merlin; I don't think I've ever left one of his attractions without that feeling of being rinsed for every penny I have.
 
Team edit: post moved from Drayton Manor thread

The Looping Group purchase WaterWorld in Stoke-On-Trent

So it seems the Looping Group have purchased WaterWorld in Stoke on the 31st of July (the day when this thread was last updated).

Recently the water park has faced the death of a 4 year old (RIP) as of a few weeks ago. It must be really tough for the family involved, so hopefully they get all the support they need with this painful situation.

On another note, there was a large expansion a few years to be more of a leisure complex with a gym and mini golf, so this marks the entry of the Looping Group into the leisure industry. So they have quite a task on their hands.
 
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Certainly gives them an interesting triangle of attractions in the midlands, wonder if they'll look to offer combination tickets say Drayton, Water World, and a night in the Drayton Hotel allowing people to build a holiday around driving between the two resorts.
 
John_P said:
Certainly gives them an interesting triangle of attractions in the midlands, wonder if they'll look to offer combination tickets say Drayton, Water World, and a night in the Drayton Hotel allowing people to build a holiday around driving between the two resorts.
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I’d be in intrigued if they’d go after Trentham Gardens too, which i believe might still be up for sale.
 
Blackrock said:
Hopefully they’ll improve the numerous issues waterworld have had over the years such as cleanliness and overcrowding.

Interested to see what they do with the place but it really needs a massive deep clean in January or something.

Also never a bad thing to be out of that dodgy guys control
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Have you seen the pictures of Pleasurewood Hills? That doesn't exactly look tidy.
 
John_P said:
Certainly gives them an interesting triangle of attractions in the midlands, wonder if they'll look to offer combination tickets say Drayton, Water World, and a night in the Drayton Hotel allowing people to build a holiday around driving between the two resorts.
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Add in WMSP and you can complete a loop of driving round the West Midlands conurbation to the three attractions!
 
jon81uk said:
Add in WMSP and you can complete a loop of driving round the West Midlands conurbation to the three attractions!
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Drayton's top annual pass already includes WMSP, if they throw in Waterworld access too I might trade in my MAP!
 
Looping Group to sell Pleasurewood Hills

We announce the sale of Pleasurewood Hills Family Theme Park to Premier Attractions Ltd, a leading family-run operator specialized in the management of seasonal amusement rides and attractions in the United Kingdom, Middle East and Asia. Premier Attractions Ltd is owned and managed by the Stokes family, who enjoy a strong reputation in the leisure industry across the United Kingdom. Pleasurewood Hills was one of the 7 parks acquired from Compagnie des Alpes when Looping was created in 2011, and as such, holds a special place in Looping’s history and heart. Given the recent development of Looping, a strong local player like Premier Attractions Ltd is best positioned to bring Pleasurewood Hills to its full potential. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Ricky Lark and his teams for their dedication and hard work over the past years. We wish them and the Stokes family every success in this new chapter !
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Shared the LinkedIn post because Meta has doxxed too many members here recently!
 
Always surprised me how they havent been able to make Pleasurewood hills work.

East Anglia is a very good catchment area and is also close enough to the London area to get day trippers. Its also one of the driest regions of the UK.

Maybe the market research has suggested otherwise and thats why they havent invested heavily into it.

Can see it closing down within next few years sadly.
 
Benjsh said:
Always surprised me how they havent been able to make Pleasurewood hills work.

East Anglia is a very good catchment area and is also close enough to the London area to get day trippers. Its also one of the driest regions of the UK.

Maybe the market research has suggested otherwise and thats why they havent invested heavily into it.

Can see it closing down within next few years sadly.
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One problem with Pleasurewood, a little like Oakwood, is that it’s in an area that only gets any significant amount of passing trade during the holidays when the weather is nice. Outside of that summer holiday boom, the local captive audience is lacking; the nearest semi-major cities are probably Norwich and Ipswich (not huge population centres themselves), and currently, Norwich is showing as a 50 minute drive even with relatively light traffic and Ipswich is showing as almost 1.5 hours.

While parts of the East of England are close to London, Pleasurewood and its immediate surrounding area are in the most remote part of the East with the least population. As an example, driving to Pleasurewood from even a north eastern area of the London commuter belt such as Brentwood or Loughton in Essex (just as examples) is currently taking between 2 and 2.5 hours. Getting there from other parts of London would take even longer. If you’re a Londoner, what is pulling you to Pleasurewood for a specific trip outside of holiday season when the Merlin parks are notably closer?

It was similar for me and people in my semi-immediate area with Oakwood. Technically, I lived within day trippable distance of Oakwood, with it taking around a 2h 15m drive on a good run. People living in a city like Bristol may well have had a similar distance to drive, and those living in Newport and Cardiff could probably have reached it in under 2 hours with a good headwind. But when superior parks in England aren’t a significantly longer drive away, why would people bother to go to Oakwood in its own right for a day trip to get a theme park fix?

Now like I also said about Oakwood, I don’t think the location is insurmountable by any means. But the park’s remote location and its reliance on holidaymakers (like Oakwood, Pleasurewood is the type of park that most people would visit as part of a wider holiday to Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft, I feel, rather than much of a draw in its own right) can’t help it.
 
Matt N said:
While parts of the East of England are close to London, Pleasurewood and its immediate surrounding area are in the most remote part of the East with the least population. As an example, driving to Pleasurewood from even a north eastern area of the London commuter belt such as Brentwood or Loughton in Essex (just as examples) is currently taking between 2 and 2.5 hours. Getting there from other parts of London would take even longer. If you’re a Londoner, what is pulling you to Pleasurewood for a specific trip outside of holiday season when the Merlin parks are notably closer?

It was similar for me and people in my semi-immediate area with Oakwood. Technically, I lived within day trippable distance of Oakwood, with it taking around a 2h 15m drive on a good run. People living in a city like Bristol may well have had a similar distance to drive, and those living in Newport and Cardiff could probably have reached it in under 2 hours with a good headwind. But when superior parks in England aren’t a significantly longer drive away, why would people bother to go to Oakwood in its own right for a day trip to get a theme park fix?
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As an East Anglian, this is how I felt about Oakwood (except I thought Megafobia was up there with anything in the UK). But I say this about both Pleasurewood and Oakwood - any park that used to be able to attract 500,000 visitors shouldn't be written off.

Pleasurewood was one of the main parks in the '80s, even having to compete with the "big" parks (ie. they'd get visitors from London). However, I'd agree that the emergence of the Tussauds parks was a game changer. When Chessington got Vampire in 1990, it was a significant step ahead of Pleasurewood, and the same goes for how Thorpe developed as well.

That said, I've always believed in Pleasurewood. The trouble is, it's had 20 years of wrong decisions, in my opinion, with the bigger expenditures arguably not very wise. Wipeout was not very appealing compared to a brand new family-thrill coaster, and Hob's Pit was not right for the park at all. Safari and Giddy Up were good, but I suppose not major enough. The good news is that the "bigger" owners are not always wiser. I'd say Peter and Peggy Hadden were the last time I thought it had really good owners.

However, as many have pointed out, Premier will need deep pockets. The rides at Pleasurewood are ancient, and surely many will need replacing at once. Is it even possible?

We'll see...
 
Looping Group re-confirm their investment plans for WaterWorld

So it sounds like WaterWorld will be the replacement for Pleasurewood Hills on the Drayton and WMSP passes, and that there will be a new combo pass for the West Midlands to reflect this. They also confirm that they want to bring the staff from other attractions over to develop the water park.

On a slightly unrelated side note, Staffordshire County Council are pushing for East and West Staffordshire under government plans for Unitary Authorities. This would mean that Drayton Manor, WaterWorld and subsequently Alton Towers would fall under the same local authority for everything (including planning), might update the Local Government reform thread about this at some point.
 
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