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The Sinking Ship: (Un)Love Letters to Merlin

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Agree with you fully what's the point of a new ride with other things closed? People want to visit the whole park, a new ride is just part of enhancing the experience! This is all very sad I had been looking forward to a bumper new year, a new ride, improved duel, and even NST open very sad :-(

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Nick Varney has received an Honorary Doctorate for his services to the leisure industry over the past 15 years.

 
Rick said:
Yet ironically(?), he is one of the largely forgotten chief protagonists in the Alton Towers story during the era that is held in such high regard in this community.
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Sometimes it seems that’s just how it goes. I find it ironic that Disney fans hate Michael Eisner for the cost cutting in his latter years as Disney’s CEO. They seem to forget that until Eisner came onboard the Disney company was on the verge of collapse and his new thinking both started the Disney renaissance period and more than doubled the number of Disney Parks. No matter how someone ends their career, it’s worth remembering how they started it.
 
Rick said:
Yet ironically(?), he is one of the largely forgotten chief protagonists in the Alton Towers story during the era that is held in such high regard in this community.
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Mainly because someone else was in charge of the purse strings. A creative mind and good marketer doesn't make a great CEO. I'm sure Paul Flowers was a cracking methodist minister, bloody useless at running a bank though....

This degree thingy is merely yet another Elite Self Congratulatory ceremony like the honours system. Doesn't really mean anything to the person on the street, elites are forever patting each other on the back inside their bubbles.
 
Tim said:
Sometimes it seems that’s just how it goes. I find it ironic that Disney fans hate Michael Eisner for the cost cutting in his latter years as Disney’s CEO. They seem to forget that until Eisner came onboard the Disney company was on the verge of collapse and his new thinking both started the Disney renaissance period and more than doubled the number of Disney Parks. No matter how someone ends their career, it’s worth remembering how they started it.
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Like Arsene Wenger?

Varney may well have his hands tied he has to deliver returns to shareholders - that’s the biggest issue here
 
Forgive me, but I am a moderator on this forum. The removed posts compared Nick Varney to a man thought to have been responsible for mass killings in Africa.

This is wholly inappropriate and does not contribute to sensible discussion in any respect.
 
matthewgcole said:
Mainly because someone else was in charge of the purse strings. A creative mind and good marketer doesn't make a great CEO.
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Someone else was in charge of the purse strings and they seemingly agreed that they could make more money flogging the group than they could out of operating it - it all comes down to brass tax.

Merlin have made some odd decisions but I do believe their overall strategy is right and will pay off.
 
Rick said:
Someone else was in charge of the purse strings and they seemingly agreed that they could make more money flogging the group than they could out of operating it - it all comes down to brass tax.

Merlin have made some odd decisions but I do believe their overall strategy is right and will pay off.
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I wholeheartedly agree with your first paragraph. That's business at the end of the day.

On your second paragraph though, I disagree. As someone who usually posts relatively thought provoking things that I find enjoyable to read, and a fellow investor, I'm interested as to why you think so? I think they're pretty screwed in the long term as a going concern.
 
Doctor Varney. That made me think of a 70s sitcom character. Then i realised Reg Varney played bulter in on the buses :D

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matthewgcole said:
On your second paragraph though, I disagree. As someone who usually posts relatively thought provoking things that I find enjoyable to read, and a fellow investor, I'm interested as to why you think so? I think they're pretty screwed in the long term as a going concern.
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For a few reasons, I think Merlin's strategy is fairly sound but they have a few growing pains which they are beginning to overcome. I also don't think that the share price is necessarily indicative of the results - in the same way that in the past it has made great strides on the back of seemingly nothing. The properties are highly profitable, they just need to find a way to grow them - that's very hard to do in some of their markets, with some of their attractions.

I also think that they have underplayed the effect of Smiler on the RTP business in conversations with the financial community, which I think is potentially dangerous in the short term, but the right thing to do on the back of the way the situation was reported (and continues to be so). In the LLP and Midway space I think they're doing good things. They make relatively smart decisions when it comes to acquisitions and expansions.

I believe Varney is the right guy to run this company, he lives and breathes the attractions industry and that company in a way that I haven't seen in many CEOs. Plus, he has a lot of cash tied up in Merlin himself, it's not in his interest to see it fail - why would he want to destroy something he helped build? (Yes, I know that's Eminem).

Additionally, we can see what has transpired with Merlin because they own the parks, we'll never know what would have happened if someone else had got hold of them. There seems to be an assumption in this community that what we have now is as bad as it could possibly get but anything could have happened if someone else had got their hands on the parks - we'll never know.

The desire to compare what happens in the UK vs. what happens at a family owned German park is far too great. Life is not like RCT, the reality is very different in different markets.

If I am wrong, well it's only money, isn't it - my kids will have to put themselves through uni. They'll get snapped up by private equity and then the fun will really start.
 
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