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Merlin Entertainments: General Discussion

TBH merging this departments into one and (in theory knowing Merlin) more efficient unit in which there is more eye to eye meetings.

For example you might not see another Thirteen marketing debacle in which the ride designers and marketing team were on different wavelengths and likely never had a conversation in being different departments.
 
Dave said:
Looks like they are merging the back of house support teams across the UK. To be honest I’m surprised they still have separate marketing and HR departments
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Could be even more centralised than that. Guess a lot of support functions could go continental/global.

This comes across as more of a restructure intended to appease banks/creditors for better, or renewed, terms on loans.

A spin off of the different parts of the business, or another flotation always remain a possibility with Merlin the way it is structured, but unsure if we have anything to suggest one or both of those are on the verge of happening right now.

Thoughts to all staff affected!
 
QTXAdsy said:
TBH merging this departments into one and (in theory knowing Merlin) more efficient unit in which there is more eye to eye meetings.

For example you might not see another Thirteen marketing debacle in which the ride designers and marketing team were on different wavelengths and likely never had a conversation in being different departments.
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We haven't had a debacle of that scale since Thirteen, though. I think this will lead to more 'generalised' content rather than attraction specific. I can understand why finance would be centralised. HR? Sure, why not? Marketing doesn't make as much sense to me, however.

Also, I note it says entertainment. This, on the face of it, is a horrendous two steps backwards since 2023, when Mardi Gras hit its stride, and Oktoberfest was ramped up to the best form of its event. The silver lining is that I believe it's being outsourced to RWS, which has a great portfolio. But in hindsight, this would be the equivalent of going to Ferrari and asking them to manufacture an F40 but giving them the budget to make a Fiat 500.
 
venny said:
This all takes me back to the heady days of 2024 when some people were trying to tell us the event quantity was being cut so that they could focus on quality.

Turns out they actually cut the events because they wanted to cut the events.
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Who said that?

There was some musings that mardigras was cut to put the funding to other events but I don’t think it was ever considered anything more than speculation. Certainly no one who is usually a good source of info suggests it.

Danny’s suggestion that they are outsourcing Ents is curious, some would argue the scarefest mazes where at their best when it was an outsourced event back at the beginning but I don’t see how you outsource something at a lower cost and get a better product, but then again it ain’t my area of expertise.
 
Dave said:
Who said that?

There was some musings that mardigras was cut to put the funding to other events but I don’t think it was ever considered anything more than speculation. Certainly no one who is usually a good source of info suggests it.

Danny’s suggestion that they are outsourcing Ents is curious, some would argue the scarefest mazes where at their best when it was an outsourced event back at the beginning but I don’t see how you outsource something at a lower cost and get a better product, but then again it ain’t my area of expertise.
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It could be that the design of the events and mazes are created centrally, at the same time for all of the parks, with the outsourcing of actors going through an agency.

Entirely speculation, of course. Without knowing which Entertainments positions are at risk, or are being consolidated, it's almost impossible to to work out the corporate reasoning, or the impact it's going to have.
 
I think it would be the other way round - they keep the actors internally but outsource the design and production to one creative agency as opposed to using several. Daz, for example, is an outsourced maze from concept to tech and delivery, but the acting is kept in-house.
 
It’s very sad, it always is.

However, I believe it probably makes sense. You’ve got this company which has merged with other company’s over the years.

So you become less streamlined with multiple departments for individual attractions, when you could possibly merge them into one.

They haven’t stopped hiring either, I wouldn’t exactly call this cutbacks but optimisation of the business. They just want to make it streamlined, and save some cash. It’s a business at the end of the day

Also for the customer, it will generate a more coherent experience and less confusion. For example, being centralised could mean maze costs would become the same across all parks and the offering is the same level. Fast track would have more coherent structure, annual passes, parking, opening hours.

Centralisation is a bad thing, however you’ll know if you’re going to a Merlin theme park. It will work like this, cost like this and be like this. The past couple of years it’s become apparent they wanted this, they now do Merlin gift cards to use on any attraction. This is just a formality to bring it together.
 
MattL27 said:
Centralisation is a bad thing, however you’ll know if you’re going to a Merlin theme park. It will work like this, cost like this and be like this. The past couple of years it’s become apparent they wanted this, they now do Merlin gift cards to use on any attraction. This is just a formality to bring it together.
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Hopefully it never centralises to the extent Merlin Entertainments Alton Towers Resort becomes the accepted nomenclature.

Despite the acronym, MEATR, sounding like a Toby Carvery dating app.
 
MrTowers said:
https://news.sky.com/story/merlin-entertainments-dives-into-sale-of-aquarium-assets-13308384

Looks like the non-core sea life centres will be sold. Further reduction of costs by merlin. It does say Birmingham, Manchester and London won't be for sale. I would imagine Blackpool would also be safe but the non-merlin stronghold locations will likely be for the chop, further reducing the value of MAP after Bear Gryls Adventure closing last year
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Varney is truly gone. Sea-Life is where Merlin started. I've long suspected that it was his nostalgia that was furthering the expansion, and keeping a lot of the sites open.

A rejigging of portfolio, in addition to the employee restructuring, only furthers my belief that Merlin are getting ready for another floatation.

Possibly well predicted, Mr @BarryZola!
 
I suppose theoretically another local attraction could buy one to make a mini-cluster. That's what happened in Southend back in the 90s when Adventure Island bought a small Sea Life Centre. The problem is, I suspect a lot of attractions in seaside towns are quite hard up. Maybe Flamingo Land would be interested in the Scarborough one. They've taken over running the water park in Scarborough, and had planned to build a mini indoor theme park in Scarborough at one point in time. There may be some opportunities for synergy and cross pollination.
 
Not a massive surprise really. As has also been discussed with regards to Oakwood and similar I think tourism to the UK seaside towns isn't as big as it was. So all the Sea-Life business Merlin had in the 90s and 2000s before the Tussauds merger probably isn't as busy as it once was. But keeping clusters where they can sell tickets to 2-4 attractions like Birmingham (Sea-Life, Lego Discovery & Cadbury), Manchester (Sea-Life & Lego), Blackpool (Tussauds, Tower etc) and London (Eye, Dungeon, Tussauds) makes sense. It seems there is a shift away from the original Merlin attractions of the 90s towards the stuff that was more Tussauds.
 
It doesn't really surprise me, i think it actually makes pretty good business sense as I can't imagine many of them make much of a profit, and really once you've been to one you have been to all of them. Add to that there are sea life attractions at Alton Towers and Chessington and you further reduce your potential visitors who may have been to one when visiting a theme park.

I hope merlin use the sale of these attractions to open some more unique attractions in the UK. The mini clusters work well with visitors combining attractions to make a visit worthwhile.

I do wonder if merlin would consider looking at any other major cities for clusters. Bristol, Leeds and Edinburgh spring to mind as potential locations. I imagine living near a cluster means your more likely to buy a merlin pass so this could make business sense as merlin will be aware of geographical gaps where the passes don't sell and where they do.
 
One site I think might have potential for something more substantial is the Sealife Weymouth site.

I don't necessarily exclusively mean another theme park or zoo style attraction but it has potential to be a decent sized attraction of some form.

It also has potential to be mixed-use as well including residential, retail etc. if a developer wants to redevelop the site.
 
There are potentially various reasons why they might not be making a lot of money; declining visitors to the British seaside, rising energy costs to heat and filtrate the tanks, the cost of vets/marine biologists, aging infrastructure… the obvious response though is that if they’re not worth a lot to Merlin, they might not be worth a lot to anyone else. Although I take the point that one or two of them might sit on land with a certain amount of value.
 
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