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Staff Redundancies

190 is a huge number of staff to lose, and I can only hope that there aren't repercussions from this such as worse customer experience, as that is the last thing the park needs at the moment.

I think this is a completely unnecessary move by Alton - Merlin are a multi million pound company and they can afford to run Alton for a few years with it not making as much profit as it has been doing in previous years in favour of rescuing the park. If cutting down this many jobs has an adverse effect on the park through the eyes of a paying customer then I can only see it causing the popularity to dwindle further, which given the reduced gate figures already is the opposite of what the park should be doing.

This begs the question of whether Merlin are the right people to run theme parks, as they should be trying their best to restore people's faith in the park, not cutting back on staff, rides available and everything else which has received a drastic cut over the last few months. Sadly it seems that short-term profit is more important to them, which is a shame as that is not going to rescue the park.


Irrelevant to this, I also think it is a bit sad that a lot of the people who supported the park during what has probably been their most difficult year on record have now lost their jobs, but I guess it's no different to other businesses cutting jobs.
 
kris3012 said:
but to slag Merlin off for doing it is ridiculous imo every company in the world(that is successful) would be acting in exactly the same way.
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It's almost as if this is a forum specifically for discussing Merlin and Alton Towers.
 
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Jamie said:
190 is a huge number of staff to lose, and I can only hope that there aren't repercussions from this such as worse customer experience, as that is the last thing the park needs at the moment.

I think this is a completely unnecessary move by Alton - Merlin are a multi million pound company and they can afford to run Alton for a few years with it not making as much profit as it has been doing in previous years in favour of rescuing the park. If cutting down this many jobs has an adverse effect on the park through the eyes of a paying customer then I can only see it causing the popularity to dwindle further, which given the reduced gate figures already is the opposite of what the park should be doing.

This begs the question of whether Merlin are the right people to run theme parks, as they should be trying their best to restore people's faith in the park, not cutting back on staff, rides available and everything else which has received a drastic cut over the last few months. Sadly it seems that short-term profit is more important to them, which is a shame as that is not going to rescue the park.


Irrelevant to this, I also think it is a bit sad that a lot of the people who supported the park during what has probably been their most difficult year on record have now lost their jobs, but I guess it's no different to other businesses cutting jobs.
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I agree they need to make sure the customer experience is as good as possible, it is highly likely imo though that the number of staff will remain similar to before just in a different form of employment i.e seasonal, part time etc
 
RoyJess said:
My main concern is that before the incident, the park was already making cuts which could be felt by the guest.
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Exactly this. The incident is only a small part of what is happening here. Cuts have been making there way into the park's operations for the last 3-4 years, probably longer, and squeezing more and more each year.

The fact that nearly all of Merlin's additions to Alton Towers in recent years haven't been well received shows that the business was failing and not meeting customer expectations. Hence, Merlin have switched to a 4 year investment cycle when it was intended to be 3, because it wasn't working out. It wasn't viable to spend that much money. The 'Long Term Development Plan' hasn't gone to plan either, and even this years Enchanted Village has received only a luke-warm reaction at best.
 
^ As I said, if you cut staff from your cost base, it allows you to cut less from the product and the services you offer.
 
Or there's nothing left to cut from the products and services that wouldn't be noticed by general guests?
 
Dar said:
Or there's nothing left to cut from the products and services that wouldn't be noticed by general guests?
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I think there's plenty you could cut. They're damned whatever they do. They cut staff - you guys don't like it. They close a ride for the season - you guys don't like it, see the Thorpe thread.

Cost savings have to be made somewhere to protect the future of the park. That's the way it works. Human resource is very expensive and to over staff is irresponsible. Correct staffing levels are fundamental to financial integrity.

It's happening. The people with the numbers and the data have decided it's the best way to move forward and even without the seeing data it sounds like the most sensible approach. Business vs staffing is linear. I hate cutting people from my team but sometimes that's the way it goes. I'm done, we're going round in circles.
 
If we see further cuts I would favour them closing the park entirely on selected quiet days of the season, rather than see further cuts such as rides becoming SBNO or more staggered openings (which have been noticed by general guests this year).

Of course at this moment in time we don't know the full extent of cuts at Towers in 2016. This whole staffing restructure may just be the end of it and we don't see the park suffer hugely because of that. Time will tell.
 
There's always stuff they COULD cut, but just because they're saving money doesn't mean that securing the future of the park, quite the reverse in fact as there's a real risk of a prolonged downwards spiral. People have been complaining for years about Merlin's front line cuts, and with the prices they're charging they have to at least try to maintain the illusion of being a premium product or guest numbers will keep falling. I've been worried about the park's future for some time, but right now the outlook seems worse than ever.
 
Martin said:
It's funny because thinking sacking nearly 200 people will make things better is more idealist than thinking it's a horrible thing to do. And sacking staff hoping they don't have a busy year and have to break the law by rehiring is much more of a fast track option than better utilising staff and making changes where they actually need them - the way the company is run.
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I am certainly not for these job losses and not trying to defend them but saying things like this mean that you lose some degree of credibility on the subject as it shows you have not read the statement by Towers (or it's gone in one ear and out the other). They are not just sacking nearly 200 staff and I have a feeling that they're not just doing this in anticipation of a quiet year.

They are considering cutting up to 190 salaried jobs following a review and consultation. Of course some will simply be made redundant however they have said that some will be redeployed elsewhere in the company. Some will take early retirement and others will be lost simply but not replacing current or upcoming vacancies. They're not just going to pull 190 people into a room and sack them all.

Without knowing a lot more details it is hard to comment on whether or not these job losses are absolutely needed to protect the future of the park (my feeling is they could carry on without them as Merlin have more than enough money but when looking at Towers as a business on its own then maybe they are). I also think that this re-structure was probably coming regardless of the incident on The Smiler, however the event may have increased the scale of the re-structure. Merlin have been cutting things left right and centre for a number of years so there is every chance that a staff re-structure was already on the cards.
John said:
There's always stuff they COULD cut, but just because they're saving money doesn't mean that securing the future of the park, quite the reverse in fact as there's a real risk of a prolonged downwards spiral. People have been complaining for years about Merlin's front line cuts, and with the prices they're charging they have to at least try to maintain the illusion of being a premium product or guest numbers will keep falling. I've been worried about the park's future for some time, but right now the outlook seems worse than ever.
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Ultimately these are my feelings. You can cut what you like; staff, rides, opening hours, F&B etc. but all this serves to do is reduce the product that is on offer. At the same time the ticket prices are going one way - up. So the product is getting worse yet you are having to pay more for it, that seems like a strange recipie for success to me.

Merlin need to take more time looking at overall guest experience and the quality of their product than looking at what to cut next. It is no surprise that happy guests tend to spend more, stay longer and are more likely to return. This is such a basic principal in theme parks. Charging such high prices for an inferior product cannot help achieve this.

This is where Merlin have a far poorer understanding of theme parks when compared to the likes of Disney, Universal, Europa-Park, Plopsa, Liseberg and lots of other independent parks in Europe and the USA. Let think of another company whose parks are struggling at present though - SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. And what is their strategy? Cuts. Is it a coincidence that those who cut struggle and that those who care and spend succeed? Of course not. Theme parks are an expensive business and if you are not prepared to invest for the good of the park and it's guests you are asking to fail.

:)
 
Is it also a surprise that both Merlin and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment were both funded by Blackstone until they both floated on the stock market? What has happened to them both since floating and also why have Disney been buying up DLP shares because floating on the stock markets generally isn't good for them.
 
Natalie said:
Is it also a surprise that both Merlin and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment were both funded by Blackstone until they both floated on the stock market? What has happened to them both since floating and also why have Disney been buying up DLP shares because floating on the stock markets generally isn't good for them.
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Why is that a surprise? That's how private equity works. Merlin had a fairly successful IPO and the share price wasn't an area for concern until the Smiler crash. I don't own too many but do keep an eye on it.

In terms of the DLP shares, the WDC arrangement was a debt/equity swap. DLC could be (and probably will be, eventually) a very successful park financially. The problem for them is that the park was built almost exclusively on debt and the repayments were structured in such a way that the park had zero cash flow.

Nearly every theme park chain in the world is public or owned by private equity (which will end up being public, almost certainly).
 
Private equity seems the lesser of the two evils or if the brand is that strong for Merlin why not do the Tokyo Disney route and money by letting other people use your IP's but they have to adhere to standards?
 
Natalie said:
Private equity seems the lesser of the two evils or if the brand is that strong for Merlin why not do the Tokyo Disney route and money by letting other people use your IP's but they have to adhere to standards?
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Private Equity is always temporary though - a private equity company doesn't hold on to things for very long. They buy a business, increase its value and flog it.

There's no real advantage to Merlin doing what OLC does, particularly in this climate.
 
Slightly off topic maybe (so move if needed) but Alton towers isn't owned by Merlin its just leased, so at what point(if any) would its owners(Prestbury) step in if the park continued to decline by the way Merlin runs it.
Obviously i don't know the legal side of it but surely if the business is going backwards its going to have a negative effect for Prestbury long term.
 
Merlin are the shareholders of the trade and assets of Alton Towers. Only the land it operates on is leased to Alton Towers/Merlin, and that arrangement has nothing to do with the control or distribution of funds between AT and Merlin
 
According to wiki
' In July 2007, the resort and park was sold to Nick Leslau and his investment firm Prestbury who now lease the park back to Merlin Entertainments to operate on a 35-year lease.'
It reads to me that merlin have the lease to operate the park but like i say im probably reading it wrong(or wiki has it wrong) idk
 
Yes makes sense, just me reading things wrong.
 
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