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Oakwood closes its doors, cites financial difficulties

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Giga Poster

Oakwood Theme Park to close | Oakwood Theme Park

The Best Adventure Park in Wales
www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk

It is with much sadness that we have to announce the immediate closure of Oakwood Theme Park and confirm the park will not open for the 2025 season.

Following a strategic review of the business, Aspro Parks, owner and operator of Oakwood Theme Park have reached this difficult decision due to the challenges presented by the current business environment.
All possible avenues have been explored to avoid the closure, and we fully recognise the impact of the closure on the local community and the loss that will be felt as a result.

Aspro Parks has invested over £25M since rescuing the park from being at risk of closure in 2008. Most recently a major refurbishment of Megafobia, the iconic wooden rollercoaster was completed to great success and acclaim from enthusiasts and fans of the park.

Despite the ongoing investment visitor numbers have declined, the financial performance of the park has suffered, making further investment unsustainable.

The unrelenting economic challenges ahead, increases in costs, affecting all areas of the operation from; ride parts to electricity costs, food and beverage inflation, increases in NLW and changes to national insurance thresholds have all impacted the decision.

A statement from Aspro Parks Group said “in the entire history of Aspro we have never closed any park or attraction. We, and our dedicated team of staff has strived to overcome numerous challenges to continue to bring joy to families and visitors across the region and country. Unfortunately, we could no longer see a sustainable way forward and will seek to improve our other parks using the assets and where possible team elsewhere”.

We are aware that Oakwood has been a much-loved destination for generations and a rite of passage for many young visitors. It is for this reason we feel such a sense of sadness.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the dedication and commitment of our team members past and present, suppliers and contractors who have loyally supported us and of course all those that have visited Oakwood Theme Park over the years. We are sincerely grateful.

Thank you for making Oakwood Theme Park a special place.
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That's two down, more to go sadly :(

At least Aspro had the balls to directly call out Energy, Inflation, NLW and NI changes. Not that it will change anything now, when we're about to move towards a war time economy.
 
"Aspro Parks has invested over £25M since rescuing the park" that is... not much over that many years for a theme park. But, it's Aspro parks who really really really hate doing any worthwhile investment in their properties unless they really have to, letting their parks rot first and then repairing what they absolutely must so I don't think all avenues were explored to prevent the closure as they say. Sad to see, especially with Megafobia's recent retracking, that is way harder to relocate (even though I know woodies used to get relocated back in the day) but I hope Speed finds a new home from some other UK park desperately needing a larger coaster.
 
Oh that's brutal. I went a few times as a kid before being old enough to go on anything, then when I returned later I only got Megafobia as the weather was bad enough for nothing else to open. Was really hoping to get back to get the rest :(

Oakwood was in a bad place as the location is terrible. Yes tourists go on holiday over that area but it's miles away from anywhere so it seems like there probably wasn't a local base of people to pull from as Wales takes a long time to get around.

I'm sure more places will close down - feels like there's more park and ride closures than there are new ones lately. I suspect dark times ahead for both parks and the world as a whole.
 
Do we know if they've even tried to sell it / find a new operator?

Unless there's 'behind closed doors' plans for a totally different kind of development, it would seem odd for them not to try and recoup something from their investment, and it's much easier to sell an operating business than a closed one.
 
Really weird feelings about this news. I think Oakwood has been a strong contender for closure for a while, but part of me thought it’s captive market on ten far side of Wales, alongside the reputation of Megafobia and nostalgia would’ve keep it bobbing along.

My last visit was about 8-10 years ago. I found the place a bit depressing and nowhere as enjoyable compared to my first few visits in the early-mid 2000s. It felt like a slow decline from a cosy, special park (perhaps enhanced by the seemingly epic journey from Southampton) to something kinda hollow, lacking identity and direction. I never felt encouraged to return. The Megafobia refurb piqued interest, but wasn’t enough to make that aforementioned epic journey again. I wonder if my apathy towards the park is similar to those who visited in its heyday.

A pity for the permanent staff and regular visitors. I’ll hold on to the many happy memories of the park visiting with CF. Waterfall was always a big hit and barrage of laughs.
 
I feel like the writing was on the wall, but still shocked to see it closed so suddenly. Only had the one visit in 2009, so my memory of it is vague, but I remember it all feeling a bit out of place; enjoyed Megafobia & Speed though. Such a shame for all the local enthusiasts and of course for the staff.
 
I've still never been.

It's one of those parks which, for me, is far enough away that it was always a "I'll get there at some point", and Megafobia was never a big enough draw for me. Ultimately, for my location, I can get to parks which peak my interest much more - and are no doubt significantly better - in a similar time scale / more easily.

Obviously very sad, especially for the staff who will be majorly impacted by the news.

I hold out a slight glimmer of hope that it may hold a chance to reopen, by being sold to another company.
 
This is pure miss management.

In the early 00's the park was busy, it had regular investment with new rides every few years and it had that small family park charm to it. There was a real buzz about the place.

Obviously the Hydro accident really affected the park, and the previous owners couldn't carry on.

Ever since Aspro took over, prices went up, quality of service, food and investments went down. Whatever investment they made just didn't fit in and it really showed. Removing Voodoo Mansion and the western area was a big mistake.

They also screwed up with the Roald Dahl area and had to change the IP to never land last minute.

It's just been mistake after mistake that's caused this once popular park to suffer. Another example would be creating a new park entrance for no reason, yes the old entrance was dated, but wasting money on what should have been spent on inside the park

It's location was never a problem back in the day, and it still isn't.

I do think Bluestone will purchase the park back and create a resort.
 
Really sad to see it close, the ECC camping trips there were brilliant and night rides on megafobia were epic.

I wonder what will happen to the coasters? Speed has to be snapped up by someone.
 
Like most of you I mourn for the park that I visited back in the noughties when it was buzzing, the rides were fresh, and I remember a great fireworks display over Megafobia which I think they were running every night.

My last visit was in 2018 and it was severely run down and desperate for investment. Although I have to say it was still a fun day out, Waterfall never failed to provide a good laugh.

I'm gutted I never got on the revamped Megafobia, it was still terrific even in 2018. I had a trip planned for early this year :(

I reckon the "using the assets elsewhere" has already started - Hydro and Bounce could already be on their way to other parks in the chain already.

Mit deLuxe said:
I do think Bluestone will purchase the park back and create a resort.
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There's an idea, the best hope of Megafobia living on might actually be if it gets incorporated into Bluestone which is directly adjacent to that part of the park. I could definitely see them taking on the Bobsled and pedalos, a huge wooden roller coaster might be a stretch but I can dream.
 
Heth said:
It's not as simple as the taxes being the sole cause and the park has been on a slippery slope for ages.

The current government inherited an absolute mess from the government of the past 14 years, so it's not just a matter of "tax hike bad".
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To be fair to Spicy, I think they meant the NLW and NI changes Aspro quoted themselves.

But you're right, on both counts. Not the only factor, (especially with Oakwood) and changes to NLW and NI were needed, to begin to undo the mess of previous governments and global crises. :/ (I don't agree with the way the changes have been done, but something was needed.)

However, we better get used to parks closing over the next couple of years, or at best, struggling along, as NLW and NI, as well as energy and inflation, will be major factors going forwards. With many parks already struggling to make a profit, it's only going to get worse. I said it before and I'll say it again, the parks that were already struggling, will now be facing an almost impossible task to get back into the black. The way that statement reads, Aspro clearly recognise that.

And now we have the current global crisis to deal with, we'll potentially be moving to wartime economy, with increased expenditure on defence that has to be paid for, I'm not looking forward to the spring budget at all. (I hope none of this affects Universal. :( It shouldn't, should it? 🤞)
 
I had hoped to ride Megafobia one day, sad that I'll never manage it. The biggest issue was always getting there, even driving there from the south east is a long journey, trying to do it by public transport for that sparse a line-up never made sense. How likely would ride relocations be? Could Megafobia have a new life somewhere else?
 
Eh, was really shocked at this at first.

And then as soon as I thought about it, I'm surprised it's taken that long. Dwindling numbers, increased costs. Sadly won't be the last.
 
Megaphobia after the re track was easily the best UK wooden coaster.

It didn't open till 2pm, but we still managed 33 goes one after another. Just shows how quiet the park was. The after hours events were really good but it's become more and more run down every single year.

Asbro knew this was coming since Drenched and Bounce have been removed.
 
Really sad to hear the news of Oakwood closing. It's a shame we'll be losing the likes of Megafobia and Speed.

I've just saw their statement and it seems like we've found our answers on where the rides will likely be going.

"Unfortunately, we could no longer see a sustainable way forward and will seek to improve our other parks using the assets and where possible team elsewhere"

It seems like both Walygator (Grand-Est and Sud-Ouest) parks in France will be benefitting from quite a few new attractions sooner than later.
 
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