Altonadvocate1
TS Member
Nick Varney- Seems like a nice bloke, good on interviews, stood up to Kay Burleigh, started in a lowly position at towers and worked his way up. Under his leadership, parks in the UK, have had more capital investment than any others...
But...
Rides standing but not operating, poor investment decisions for small and medium investment years, whole areas left to rot until TLC became unavoidable, closed food and beverage outlets, poor opening times, redundancies, zero hours contracts, hotels closed part season, higher ticket prices, reduced maintenance budgets and reduced entertainment.
Merlin gets a lot of stick on these forum, some of it justified. Though it is rarely directed at NV himself, he is the man in charge.
So it begs the question. If we could give him the chop who would you want to see replace him? Who could be trusted to get the right balance between, good value, quality investments, looking after and respecting historic buildings whilst still delivering attractive returns for shareholders.
The Dragons Den guys, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Sir Philip Green, the Mack Family (I know this will be a popular choice), Sir Alan Sugar. You can pick anybody, they don't have to be on this list.
Personally, I would vote for Tim Martin, boss of Wetherspoon's, a man who flies in the face of convention, treats his staff better than is typical for his industry (though not as well as I would like), delivers a quality product, fair prices, long opening times and seems to make every effort to avoid passing price increases on to the paying public. His company shows the utmost respect to the historical building that he converts to pubs, doing an excellent Job of restoration works with significant capital investment, and whilst he opposes the living wage and supports zero hours contracts, his company does pay a very significant proportion of profits to staff at all levels. He seems a personable chap and clearly listens to his customers. Despite all of this his company is incredibly successful.
Tim Martin for me.
Who would you make the boss of Merlin Entertainments and why?
But...
Rides standing but not operating, poor investment decisions for small and medium investment years, whole areas left to rot until TLC became unavoidable, closed food and beverage outlets, poor opening times, redundancies, zero hours contracts, hotels closed part season, higher ticket prices, reduced maintenance budgets and reduced entertainment.
Merlin gets a lot of stick on these forum, some of it justified. Though it is rarely directed at NV himself, he is the man in charge.
So it begs the question. If we could give him the chop who would you want to see replace him? Who could be trusted to get the right balance between, good value, quality investments, looking after and respecting historic buildings whilst still delivering attractive returns for shareholders.
The Dragons Den guys, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Sir Philip Green, the Mack Family (I know this will be a popular choice), Sir Alan Sugar. You can pick anybody, they don't have to be on this list.
Personally, I would vote for Tim Martin, boss of Wetherspoon's, a man who flies in the face of convention, treats his staff better than is typical for his industry (though not as well as I would like), delivers a quality product, fair prices, long opening times and seems to make every effort to avoid passing price increases on to the paying public. His company shows the utmost respect to the historical building that he converts to pubs, doing an excellent Job of restoration works with significant capital investment, and whilst he opposes the living wage and supports zero hours contracts, his company does pay a very significant proportion of profits to staff at all levels. He seems a personable chap and clearly listens to his customers. Despite all of this his company is incredibly successful.
Tim Martin for me.
Who would you make the boss of Merlin Entertainments and why?
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