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The Alton Towers Gardens

TedShatner10 said:
what about Merlin's half billion loss
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Merlin's total operating loss for the year was £132 million, not half a billion, which has been discussed on the far more appropriate Merlin Entertainments thread.
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Some notes from the 2024 report.

From 2025, Legoland Parks, RTPs and Gateway attractions will no longer operate as separate entities. Instead they will be managed by four regions: North America; UK; Europe; Asia-Pacific. The idea is to give a more cohesive experience, and share best practices, across the attractions.
  • Visitor numbers increased overall, with 62.8 million people (up 1.1%).
  • Revenue is down 3.2% from 2023, £2.053 billion.
  • Underlying operating profit is down to £285 million in 2024, compared to £408 million in 2023.
  • Total operating profit swung from £172 million in 2023, to a loss of £132 million in 2024.
Merlin attributes these numbers to challenging market headwinds, affecting the entire entertainment leisure industry, and impacting discretionary consumer spending. Visitors have less spare cash to spend on attractions.

An increase in promotions and discounts, were part of the adaptions Merlin has made. In addition to increasing spend on advertising, from £90 million in 2023, to £100 million in 2024.

The calculated move here was to keep visitor increasing, and maintaining market share.

Rising operational costs were a major factor in the losses, in addition to inflationary wage increases. Staff expenses increased from £545 million to £575 million. Some central teams, such as data and digital, also saw increases investment.

The biggest hit and factor though, which is largely outside of Merlin's control, was foreign currency exchange rates. Merlin is a UK based business and was particularly struck by a very weak Pound, especially as it operates globally. Without currency movements, revenue would only be 0.7% lower, not the 3.2% reported at the top. That's a £52 million difference right there, just from currency swings.

Impairment charges totalled £384 million. This isn't cash going out of the door, but an accounting adjustment relating to the perceived value of long term assets. It's Merlin signalling that some of their larger bets, particularly on new resorts, aren't paying off as quickly as they hoped. They have to re-evaluate the future earning potential.

Impairment charges hit hardest in these areas:
  • £191 million relates to existing brands.
    • £163 million relates specifically to Madame Tussaud's.
    • £48 million for gateway attractions more broadly.
  • £110 million for Legoland New York.
  • £35 million for Legoland Korea.
The reports state that the newer Legoland parks "trading below initial expectations and will take longer than planned to reach operating maturity".

Guest top box satisfaction, those who were "Very Satisfied", increased to 73% from 72% in 2023. Net promoter score, which is how likely people are to promote them, improved too. Employee engagement score also increased to 69% favourable, from 68% the year before, from a survey response rate of 86%.

Merlin have stated that they are are still committing to long term investment plans for their attractions.

ESG takeaways
  • £2 million invested in 50 green energy projects.
    • The energy generated from these schemes has been enough to power the London Eye for 8,000 cycles (whatever that means).
  • Legoland Windsor's new Woodland Village is their first carbon neutral accomodation.
  • The instalment of 28 recycling reverse vending machines in their UK parks.
  • Investments have been made in shading, misters for heatwaves and flood defences.
  • Funding of 16 new global conservation projects worldwide.
Identified Risks and Strategies

Cost inflation is a constant battle. This will be addressed through strategic pricing, trying to make more costs variable rather than fixed. Redesigning capital projects to manage spending, without hurting the guest experience, requires constant vigilance.

Cyber related activity is a huge risk, considering their large customer data set. Multilayer technical controls, in addition to targeted staff training and regular updates to the board on the cyber threats landscape are their controls here.

Liquidity and cashflow will be managed with detailed cash forecasting, maintaining strong relationships with lenders.

Merlin completed a large debt refinancing early in 2025, issuing $410 million in new notes, to repay $400 million in older ones. This gives them financial flexibility and shows that they can access capital, whilst staying compliant with their financial covenants.

Foreign exchange translation is a bit of a headache, creating a lot of volatility on paper. It will be managed, moving forward, by presenting constant currency figures; showing underlying results without the currency swings. They also match their borrowings with the currency where they operate.

Merlin is facing complex financial and operational challenges. They are actively adapting, innovating and investing. I look forward to 2025's results, this time next year.

TLDR
No. You're not having one @rob666. I've just distilled a 117 page report for you. This post is a TLDR. Go back and read it. 🪿
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TedShatner10 said:
and a couple of their relatively new overseas Legolands (like in S. Korea) being seen as almost a wasted effort, while Altons remained relatively stagnant and suffered in recent years from uneven operations/opening hours?
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What about them? What's the relevance to the Alton Towers Gardens?
 
TedShatner10 said:
Paultons may be in debt with its recent expansions that could be seen as over ambitious for a regional park (the theme park business is expensive and troubled)
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Paultons currently have a very low asset to debt ratio with significant cash reserves in place. They'll be fine

Blackpool on the other hand are not looking so good, especially when you take into account the additional debt for the new gyroswing.

The Merlin figures look worse than they actually are due to the ammendments to the Legoland numbers.

Anyways, the gardens...
 
Not seen anything working lately. I was there making a history video around the place today and nothing was working. Not a single fountain. It's been like that for a while with the odd flourish from the Screw Fountain and the Pagoda Fountain occasionally. There are problems with the water supplies not getting to most of the fountains now for various reasons.
 
Don't forget that all the fountains and waterfalls are fed naturally from outside sources, so what with the weather being as dry as it's been this summer so far, they may not be opening the valves to operate them to help conserve water upstream. Not sure if that's correct, but its a theory! If there is a hosepipe ban in the water company area, are these fountains etc classed as such therefore they're not allowed to turn them on?
 
BarryZola said:
Not seen anything working lately. I was there making a history video around the place today and nothing was working. Not a single fountain. It's been like that for a while with the odd flourish from the Screw Fountain and the Pagoda Fountain occasionally. There are problems with the water supplies not getting to most of the fountains now for various reasons.
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Shame really, our boy has a particular liking for water features so have spent many an hour walking from one to another.
Steve74 said:
Don't forget that all the fountains and waterfalls are fed naturally from outside sources, so what with the weather being as dry as it's been this summer so far, they may not be opening the valves to operate them to help conserve water upstream. Not sure if that's correct, but its a theory! If there is a hosepipe ban in the water company area, are these fountains etc classed as such therefore they're not allowed to turn them on?
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Yeah, makes sense. Can't remember if it had been particularly dry before Easter this year to be honest, but think it was the first time they hadn't been on at that time of year for quite a while (could be wrong, my memory isn't great).
 
This is Edward Adveeno Brooke writing c1857 about the water supply. It's a decent early historical source because the gardens would only have been created in the previous 50 years to that so they were relatively young:

"A little lower down the valley is a large Chinese Pagoda Fountain, which throws a volume of water ninety feet high. To supply this and other fountains,—twelve in number,—cascades, and the whole demand at the Towers, there are eight pools, which rise in irregular terraces and extent to the summit of the hill, to which point it is brought by means of a private canal, cut expressly from a spring of fine water, at a place called Ramshorn, a distance of three miles".
 
GaryH said:
Indeed the Pagoda fountain is the end of the gravity fed pipe. After it’s fed the lakes and fountains there is still enough pressure in it to shoot the water that high into the air. Incredible when you think about it.
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Water is the most reliable, and oldest, power source on the planet. ;)
Wonder how much they could power if they re-directed those feeds in to a turbine...?

... Hang on, we've had this discussion already, recently! 🤣
 
The only fountains I've seen operating of late are the Pagoda and Screw Fountains.

When I was there earlier in the summer, the Pagoda was working earlier in the day, but had been shutoff by mid-afternoon. Ironically, they had shut it off just in time for the House and Garden tour. I may be misremembering, but I think they confirmed on the tour that it was related to the dry weather why it wasn't running.

Given we know all the fountains operate off gravity, I believe the Pagoda is actually fed from Temple Lake (the larger lake next to the Gothic Prospect Tower), with the Screw (and presumably Le Refuge) powered by the smaller lake next to it, so it is the water levels in these lakes which dictate whether the fountains in that part of the garden are able to run.
 
Squiggs said:
The only fountains I've seen operating of late are the Pagoda and Screw Fountains.

When I was there earlier in the summer, the Pagoda was working earlier in the day, but had been shutoff by mid-afternoon. Ironically, they had shut it off just in time for the House and Garden tour. I may be misremembering, but I think they confirmed on the tour that it was related to the dry weather why it wasn't running.

Given we know all the fountains operate off gravity, I believe the Pagoda is actually fed from Temple Lake (the larger lake next to the Gothic Prospect Tower), with the Screw (and presumably Le Refuge) powered by the smaller lake next to it, so it is the water levels in these lakes which dictate whether the fountains in that part of the garden are able to run.
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That sounds pretty much right. But with the caveat that there are manually activated valves in-between most of these levels/terraces and then some of the fountains in-between will not work anymore for various reasons (blockages or for maintenance reasons). The ones over the other side including the Dutch Garden and the level above apparently may have been negatively impacted by the building of Battle Galleons, and the ones in and around Her Ladyships Garden need pumps to be in working order as they're on a somewhat higher level. It's not hard to imagine that with the turnover of staff at the higher levels of Alton Towers over the years and also that of the gardeners that there's not always joined up thinking with regards to the gardens and the fountains that are usually a low priority in the grand scheme of things anyway.

In the next few weeks I'm finishing off one of my VERY niche badly produced AT history videos which will focus on the statuary and sculpture around the estate. The water-course stuff has been intriguing me since the FB posts of late though, so I may do a deep-dive into that later this year or next year.

Edit - Also, I've not seen the fountain at Le Refuge working for at least a decade and probably more, so that's not a gravity issue. It seems to be more of a local issue of a blockage or not being run, due to, well, I don't know. It's not likely a gravity issue though, which is the conclusion that most people first jump to (not you, obviously).
 
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Hid said:
Has anyone seen Shell Fountain Work. And the Fountains around Her Ladyship Gardens
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Yes. But they'll be in my new video in the next few weeks. It looks like you've asked that question at just the right time, honestly! And if that's annoying, people would probably attest to me being the least click-baity person on Youtube (please???). :sweatsmile: 👍 👍

It'll take a few weeks now, but it's all in place and there will be me walking around the whole estate explaining stuff and a LOAD of archive photo's and other stuff that has never been seen by 99.7% of people. If anyone's interested?

Edit - Obviously I havn't seen those fountains working lately, I recorded them in the earlier 2000s.

EDIT AGAIN - Damn, no-one is interested in this work. I'm just going to keep this video to myself until I die and then my niece and nephew (as I have no children) will just throw the hard-drive into a skip and the world will never know of the details of the sculpture and statuary around the Alton Towers estate. What a shame.
 
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BarryZola said:
Yes. But they'll be in my new video in the next few weeks. It looks like you've asked that question at just the right time, honestly! And if that's annoying, people would probably attest to me being the least click-baity person on Youtube (please???). :sweatsmile: 👍 👍

It'll take a few weeks now, but it's all in place and there will be me walking around the whole estate explaining stuff and a LOAD of archive photo's and other stuff that has never been seen by 99.7% of people. If anyone's interested?

Edit - Obviously I havn't seen those fountains working lately, I recorded them in the earlier 2000s.

EDIT AGAIN - Damn, no-one is interested in this work. I'm just going to keep this video to myself until I die and then my niece and nephew (as I have no children) will just throw the hard-drive into a skip and the world will never know of the details of the sculpture and statuary around the Alton Towers estate. What a shame.
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I wonder one day all the fountains in Towers will be fully functioning once again.

If I were Merlin I would hand the care of the listed attractions to national trust or people who look after old historic buildings. And then Merlin can fully focus on rides.
 
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