Matt N
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It’s their most visited among the Resort Theme Parks, if I’m not mistaken. That would be a fairly good yardstick.
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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion
Dave
TS Founding Member
I don’t think Merlin really think in terms of “Flagship parks”. Garda and Towers are their biggest but I don’t think they come at either with a flagship mentality. Towers maybe did when Varney was CEO due to sentimentality but I doubt that’s a thing now.
Really well run, ops are Stella and rides are well maintained its a nice change and shows they are capable.
It's one of the most profitable parks but also has the most diverse lineup in Merlin
jon81uk
TS Member
I was curious if it was the online price or the old "on the day" price they used to use for the 2for1s. It is the online price that is discounted, but not always by 50%.
"This offer gives 10-50% off on up to 4 Online Advance priced entry tickets, from 1st July 2025 until 30th June 2026 at selected Merlin Entertainments UK Attractions. Discount percentage depends on attraction and day type chosen (super off peak, off peak, peak, super peak), from a minimum of 10% in super peak, up to a maximum of 50% on select super off peak dates."
Bascially the cheap days will get even cheaper, but the expensive days remain expensive. They are now adding to variable pricing with variable discounting. Makes sense to try and push people to the quiet weekdays though, I expect September weekdays will be the main ones for 50% off.
AT86
TS Member
Merlin has failed to find a buyer for the stand alone Sealife centres in the UK and scrapped their plans to sell them:
Will they probably just close them individually now? I'd suspect they just haven't formulated a plan to do it yet.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
They didn't relinquish those attractions. Blackpool Council took operational control back, through their own entirely council owned entity Blackpool Tourism Limited.
Merlin have agreed to franchise, or licence out, the Madame Tussaud's and Dungeon brands to Blackpool Tourism Limited.
Unlikely. They haven't found any of the offers attractive enough to sell the sites. If you don't want an asset it's more prudent to sell it and be done with it, than reject all offers and then close the sites without a return.
They have said that they could be open to an auction process, at some point in the future. The Sea Life brand also continues to grow, with a recent site opening in Florida in June.
I don't think they're desperate to get rid of them by any means necessary. They'll still generate a decent chunk of profit, and they bolster the MAP offering. Merlin just couldn't find an offer it wanted to accept.
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Matt N
TS Member
As I understand it, I think @Hid is saying that it looks as though Merlin are doing badly on the surface, but if you dive deeper beyond the headline figures, they’re not doing as badly as it would first appear.
To be honest, that’s probably a sentiment I agree with based on my (admittedly fairly limited) knowledge of Merlin’s finances.
That's exactly how I think it
Dave
TS Founding Member
That’s what has been said on this forum for ages, the losses are an accounting adjustment.
It’s only the vloggers that seem confused by this.
Bert2theSpark
TS Member
Or are deliberately being naive so they can spin a narrative and get clicks… They’d never do that surely!
To be fair it probably was a bit more than just an accounting adjustment. I’m not saying that wasn’t a factor, but there did appear to be other factors at play as well. The whole attractions industry seemed to do very well coming out of Covid with a lot of pent-up demand and optimism, and then that cooled, not to mention various wars causing economic uncertainty.
There were also big rises in energy costs caused by some of these wars, which probably was a concern for attractions that were energy intensive, such as heating the large quantities of water in an aquarium.
There was also less stability at the top of Merlin, particularly with changes in the CEO, with at least some change in direction which some people felt more or less optimistic about.
Arguably there was more competition, with a big growth in things like themed mini golfs, escape rooms, trampoline parks, axe throwing etc, so it is possible that some of the Midway attractions were facing tougher competition.
It also appears that at least a couple of new Legoland’s did struggle, perhaps because of their location. Then there was Bear Gryll’s which always seemed like a bit of a flawed concept. Maybe that’s the accounting adjustment being referred to.
I think there is room for some middle ground here.
There were also big rises in energy costs caused by some of these wars, which probably was a concern for attractions that were energy intensive, such as heating the large quantities of water in an aquarium.
There was also less stability at the top of Merlin, particularly with changes in the CEO, with at least some change in direction which some people felt more or less optimistic about.
Arguably there was more competition, with a big growth in things like themed mini golfs, escape rooms, trampoline parks, axe throwing etc, so it is possible that some of the Midway attractions were facing tougher competition.
It also appears that at least a couple of new Legoland’s did struggle, perhaps because of their location. Then there was Bear Gryll’s which always seemed like a bit of a flawed concept. Maybe that’s the accounting adjustment being referred to.
I think there is room for some middle ground here.
GooseOnTheLoose
TS Member
The accounting adjustment refers to the following impairment charges.
The Bear Grylls Adventure will not be part of the accounting adjustment / impairment charges from the most recent annual statement, as it closed in Merlin's following accounting year.