Project LC

Mack spinner? *Looks up how to get to Paultons park*

Thorpe had design work being carried out however it has since gone very quiet and I am unsure if the project is still going ahead. I would like to give more details and while I am not under a NDA I don't want to get people in trouble who might be.

The introduction of a premium season pass is a good move and I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Personally when I still visited the park I would have preferred to buy the premium thorpe park pass. Not sure why the website has a tick next to the exclusion dates. On first glance it comes across as misleading.

Oh come on. The social media team must be playing for the best reaction they can get on this forum. No one in there right mind can possibly have thought that was an ok thing to post. it misses the mark of "banter" entirely.

They need to go and hire a social media company.

Thorpe invest in scary attractions as that is what the surveys say. I feel it is a classic case of mistaking customer feedback for what you want it to say. Regardless customer feedback is a poor way to plan long term. Tastes and trends change in the long term and asking people just provides a snapshot at the time. Merlin are in a position where they should be solid attractions with minor innovation. Instead we we get crazy levels of innovation without the budget and the brand centric board saying this microbrand must be xyz so we can sell it because that's what the feedback said. The people do not know what they want. They are basing the long term aims of the company off of people who have no knowledge of the industry and what it can do. Another issue is that the pay is poor higher up compared to the competition that they don't have many experts but that rant is for another time.

Kraft became Mondelezé International not long after buying Cadbury's. The recipe was changed in the name of profit and blaming changing tastes and political pressure to reduce sugar. Its a prime example of the owner not understanding the brand they have, which is a similar problem Varney has. He fundamentally has failed to grasp the importance of the Merlin brand and as a result focuses on selling the sub brands within the other sub brands. They should be selling the master brand, not the hundreds of other small ones. Another consequence of this lack of a master brand is that Varney and the board seem to micromanage. The sub brands get a lot of influence from higher ups and push them towards a goal that doesn't really benefit the product and benefits the ability to sell the product in the other sub brands.

Nick Varney at the end of the day is a brand creator. Its what he worked as for many years and its what he has focused on as a CEO. You have the overall Merlin brand, the sub brands (thorpe, alton ect.) and then you have the microbrands (nemesis, cheap and tacky IPs). Now Merlin is typically very good at the sub branding and the microbrands. There are exceptions with Thorpe being one of them. Thorpe lacks direction and as such its brand is poor. However its issues wouldn't be as significant if the overall brand was used more. Take Cadbury's, nearly every product is Cadbury's ... (Cadbury's cream egg, Cadbury's dairy milk). I feel to maximise revenue and reduce on advertising costs Merlin should be pushing the master brand more. It would drive up pass sales and would mean customer location is far less of an issue for advertising campaigns. The midways cant afford tv advertising by themselves but a combined campaign with the whole group can drive customers towards them which may never have considered it.

Investors are starting to become worried that underwhelming economic performance is not due to current market conditions and is more to do with the quality of the attractions. In April when the latest financial data is released and another underwhelming year is revealed the share price will either fall or flatline. Investor predictions will most likely turn to sell and Varney will be under pressure to make changes or walk. From what he has said in the past he doesn't like change and blames standard cycles in the economy. What I feel Varney has failed to take account of is that the current economic cycle has just past its peak and it is very unlikely they will be able to increase profits in the coming years with the eurozone heading towards recession. With any luck the board will oust Varney and someone with a refreshed vision can take the reigns. You really have to question if one person can continue to come up with new ideas to drive forward the company for as long as Varney has been there. His current direction is suffocating the parks and I see issues on the horizon as major assets reach the end of there service life.

Well it took 40 minutes for security to show up. It isn't possible to tell from the article how long it was before it was noticed the car was stolen. The keys for the car would have indicated the make and you could have just walked up and down rows until the keys opened a car. I have seen the aftermath of someone's handbag stolen from the Saw baggage room before so I can believe a bag being stolen from there again. It's not an impossible chain of events but it does seem an unlikely one. £271m was the profit before tax in 2017 while the article quotes the operating profit before tax. The company made £209m profit after tax in 2017 giving a better estimate of £1.7m per site. It's actually pretty reasonable considering revenue was £1.6bn so it's profit margin is greater than most other entertainment based businesses. Although the same is unlikely to be true for the slowdown in 2018.

Nemesis Inferno (6) Stealth (5) The Swarm (4) +Stealth -Swarm

Detonator: Bomb's Away (4) Nemesis Inferno (5) Stealth (6) The Swarm (5) + Stealth - Detonator

Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (4) Stealth (6) The Swarm (5)  Tidal Wave (5) Samurai + Saw the ride -

Reset Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Rush (5) Samurai (6)  Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) +Samurai - walking dead

Depth Charge (5) Detonator (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (2) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (7) Nemesis Inferno (8) Rush (4) Samurai (3)  Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (5) Tidal Wave (6) + Dodgems - pile of rust Samurai

Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (3) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (6) Nemesis Inferno (9) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (3) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (4) -TWDTR + Fish

Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (6) +Timber tug boat -the walking dead

Colossus (4) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (5) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (6) + Colossussussusssussssusss - walking dead

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (7) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (6) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (3) + Wet Wet Wet - Walking Dead

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (4) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (7) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (6) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (4) Storm Surge + Walking Dead -

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (2) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (6) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (6) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (3) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (6) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (5) + Storm Surge - Lumber Jump

There is an investment currently progressing forward for 2020 but as far as I am aware there is no coaster involved.

The fundamental issue with Thorpe park is that it doesn't get the basics right. It is completely irrelevant if you have a great "brand" attached to a ride if the ride itself isn't fun. Thorpe Park sell fun, end of. No fun, no customers, no money. It is a simple problem that Merlin time and time again blame on external factors. Merlin's board is obsessed with branding and marketing. Varney is very cautious and branding obsessed. It has resulted in "safe" investments for years with stupid sellable gimmicks and typically an IP attached. The park will continue to make the same mistakes while he is incharge and he needs to go. The next coaster will likely be amateur layout at best trying to be the scariest ride ever (useless interpretation of survey results to blame for that one) and likely will have an IP attached. My only hope is that this years poor performance has been a wake up call and they change the boring formula but I seriously doubt that is going to happen.

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (5) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (5) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (5) Rush (5) Samurai (6) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (6) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (4) The Swarm (5) The Walking Dead - The Ride (4) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (5) + Storm Surge - The Sleeping Dead - The Ride

Amity Beach (5) Angry Birds 4D Experience (5) Colossus (5) Depth Charge (5) Detonator: Bomb's Away (5) Flying Fish (4) King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems (5) Lumber Jump (5) Loggers Leap (5) Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride (5) Nemesis Inferno (7) Quantum (5) Rocky Express (5) Rumba Rapids (4) Rush (5) Samurai (5) Saw - The Ride (5) Stealth (5) Storm in a Teacup (5) Storm Surge (7) The Swarm (10) The Walking Dead - The Ride (2) Tidal Wave (5) Timber Tug Boat (5) Vortex (5) Wet Wet Wet (4) Zodiac (2) + Zodiac - walking dead