WTF BPB?

[Matt N]

I was looking for their profit figures and came across what looks like a post you made elsewhere!

• Year ending April 1999 (i.e. 1998 season): Loss of £1,349,000
• Year ending April 2000 (i.e. 1999 season): Loss of £744,000
• Year ending April 2001 (i.e. 2000 season): Profit of £1,527,000
• Year ending March 2002 (i.e. 2001 season): Profit of £1,268,000
• Year ending March 2003 (i.e. 2002 season): Loss of £58,000
• Year ending March 2004 (i.e. 2003 season): Profit of £95,000
• Year ending March 2005 (i.e. 2004 season): Profit of £3,320,000
• Year ending April 2006 (i.e. 2005 season): Loss of £5,649,000
• Year ending April 2007 (i.e. 2006 season): Loss of £1,347,000
• Year ending March 2008 (i.e. 2007 season): Profit of £2,687,000
• Year ending April 2009 (i.e. 2008 season): Loss of £4,279,000
  • Year ending April 2010 (i.e. 2009 season): Loss of £521,000
  • Year ending April 2011 (i.e. 2010 season): Loss of £764,000
  • Year ending April 2012 (i.e. 2011 season): Loss of £1,313,000
  • Year ending March 2013 (i.e. 2012 season): Loss of £2,547,000
  • Year ending March 2014 (i.e. 2013 season): Loss of £1,867,000
  • Year ending March 2015 (i.e. 2014 season): Profit of £364,000
  • Year ending March 2016 (i.e. 2015 season): Loss of £129,000
  • Year ending March 2017 (i.e. 2016 season): Loss of £264,000
  • Year ending March 2018 (i.e. 2017 season): Loss of £3,008,000
  • Year ending March 2019 (i.e. 2018 season): Loss of £1,874,000
  • Year ending March 2020 (i.e. 2019 season): Loss of £2,021,000

It's quite difficult to fully analyse due to all the other variables (eg. Major ride investment and financial crash).

Yes, that was indeed a post I made elsewhere on the topic!

It’s hard to judge whether the sole pay-one-price system that they’ve been operating since COVID has had a positive or negative impact, as COVID itself threw a considerable spanner in the works, but for what it’s worth, the park actually turned an outstanding pre-tax profit of £8,584,000 during the 2021 season according to the accounts up to March 2022… if that trend is reflected in the next set of accounts, maybe the move to pay-one-price may actually have been beneficial?

2020’s pre-tax loss figure also didn’t seem as terrible as it could have been given that the park was shut until July… the pre-tax loss was £2,941,000 compared to £2,021,000 for 2019.

It’s also worth noting that the introduction of paid non-ride entry actually saw a lower loss than the previous year, so there certainly wasn’t a cliff-edge drop in profits associated with free entry going as some imply.

But as you say, I think Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s financial predicament is too complex to blame on any one factor alone.

 

[Katy]

It’s hard to judge whether the sole pay-one-price system that they’ve been operating since COVID has had a positive or negative impact, as COVID itself threw a considerable spanner in the works, but for what it’s worth, the park actually turned an outstanding pre-tax profit of £8,584,000 during the 2021 season according to the accounts up to March 2022… if that trend is reflected in the next set of accounts, maybe the move to pay-one-price may actually have been beneficial?

In the accounts for that year they note that they are putting the exceptional profit down to the 5% VAT rate that was introduced for the year (so their after-VAT income was up 15% as they didn't reduce prices to offset the VAT rate change), this is now back at 20% so not expected to be repeated. It also seems they've cleared quite a lot of debt in this set of accounts, and consolidated a few loans into one £7m facility (having drawn £4m of that), Hopefully the following year's accounts are also positive, it would be nice to see them at least break even on the park even whilst spending annually on things like the Big One re-track.

Who knows though, it's far too complex to work out even with the published accounts. From what I can see, having looked at this on and off over the last decade or so, the park (including Hot Ice) usually makes a loss, this is usually offset by profit from the hotels, giving the group overall a relatively small loss (or profit) for the year.

 

[JamesB]

Oh Amanda...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1679207652608339977

 

[Efan]

Isn't this why Slack was invented?

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

It seems that for todays so called 10pm close, only the Grand National, Valhalla and IceBlast are open past 9pm out of the major rides, while some, namely the Streak, thats notoriously hard to get on, close as early as 7pm.

 

[rob666]

They have done that for years on the fireworks nights.

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

In 2020 or maybe 21 the Streak was definitely running while the fireworks were launched, we were on it.

I do of course understand why they can't run the majority of the rides during the display, but it cant only be me who feels to sell a 10pm close and have ride unnecessarily closing 3 hours early is wrong.

 

[Rob Coasters]

Just out of interest what is difficult about getting on the Streak? Was fine on my visit but to be fair most rides held a maximum ten minute wait

 

[Matt N]

Just out of interest what is difficult about getting on the Streak? Was fine on my visit but to be fair most rides held a maximum ten minute wait

Streak has quite low throughput (500pph or possibly below) due to it only having one train, so it often has long queues on busy days. I’ve waited 80 minutes for it before.

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

Just out of interest what is difficult about getting on the Streak? Was fine on my visit but to be fair most rides held a maximum ten minute wait

When it was Rollercoaster, it was white in colour with a red train, and looked to the untrained eye like part of the Big Dipper, even those who knew it was a different ride more often than not saw it as the poor relation to the Dipper and National, and with such an uninspiring name, interest in it wasn't especially high, infact more often than not it struggled to fill a train.

Fast forward to 2011, its now painted bright orange, given a new name and is the headline attraction in the new family area. Its big enough to entertain thrill seekers but gentle enough for those who aren't ready for the other wooden rides. Its popularity went up about 10 times overnight.

Add to that the reversing of the station which slows loading down and the addition of speedy pass which further slows things down, and you go from a ride that could run 2 trains but rarely needed to, which opened at park opening and closed at park close, to a ride that opens at park opening, closes insanely early, and on anything other than a very quiet day builds up a long, slow queue, it now actually needs the second train but it hasn't been seen for about 5-6 years and even then, it was always on a transfer track often in bits.

This is why so many people will tell you to ride it first thing, and I see the logic in that, if you want to get the cred, but if you want a quality ride its the worst time to do it as it warms up and runs a lot faster later on.

 

[rob666]

In 2020 or maybe 21 the Streak was definitely running while the fireworks were launched, we were on it.

I do of course understand why they can't run the majority of the rides during the display, but it cant only be me who feels to sell a 10pm close and have ride unnecessarily closing 3 hours early is wrong.

Nope, they have always closed the south park rides for the fireworks.
Nickland always closes earlier than the rest of the park, all the other main rides were opening until 9.
The park wasn't very busy at all for late riding today.

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

Nope, they have always closed the south park rides for the fireworks.
Nickland always closes earlier than the rest of the park, all the other main rides were opening until 9.
The park wasn't very busy at all for late riding today.

Trust me, it was running while the fireworks were launched. It may have been further back than I said, I don't know for sure, did they at some point launch them from what is now the Boulevard car park? Maybe now they have moved its now in the fall out zone? But I can promise you 110% it has definitely been operational while the fireworks have been going up. My other half gave me an almighty ear bashing for not leaving enough time between the ride on it, and the start of the display to get the beers from Cravettes, its a memory thats well and truly engraved in my head.

Furthermore, the whole NL closing early hasn't always been the case, it came in a few years after NL opened, and up until recently only came into force if the park went beyond 6pm, presumably as closing it an hour early on a 5pm close was deemed ridiculous (rightly so)

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

Sorry for the double post but I have found a vid of the display, and while it doesn't show the Streak due to where the person filming it is stood, it does clearly show the Revolution still running, with the Streak being further away than the Rev its reasonable to assume this is the same display.

What it does confirm is that my memory is getting worse as its 2017

The Rev reverse light come on and it launches backwards at around 4.45

 

[coasteraddict10]

Whilst I 100% agree with the sentiment of free entry and the money it could potentially bring in, I'm afraid some people do have that kind of free time on their hands.

Blackpool, which I have the pleasure or displeasure (take your pick) of visiting fairly frequently is quite a hotbed of crime. My best mate and his mrs are both part of the local police force and they are regularly taken away to work in Blackpool, taking away from the local area because of the amount of support Blackpool requires. They have described the place as having the crime rate of a major city... I'm sure it ranks amongst the top 10 highest crime rates in the UK.

I don't mean to judge, but I see first hand the sorts of people that merely wander Blackpool, many often worse for wear and actively looking for trouble. If you visited Blackpool on an average weekend, I would be fairly shocked if you didn't see an 'incident' during your time there.

Honestly, I do think that BPB would see a gradual increase in problematic people and behaviour in the park with free entry. I think you'd get all the younger generation of yobs piling in, the ones that have nothing better to do than hang around outside McDonalds in groups and cause trouble. You'd get some coming in to get pissed for the sake of it too, which I saw quite often as a kid there.

But, I do agree with the fact that the current pricing system is not favourable with the public. BPB should be a place you can visit more casually, because I think along with Sandcastle and South Pier, the south beach area of Blackpool could really regenerate itself as the friendly, family-orientated area of Blackpool away from the stag and hen, chaos riddled centre.

This is why I reckon the place is having an identity crisis.

What they need to do is extend opening hours (8pm close minimum) and have a late hours pricing system, say half price after 4pm or whatever, they'd get loads of punters coming in late for a short burst of riding imo, especially if the weather was decent.

 

[rob666]

Extending opening hours massively increases costs, often for the same overall income...two shifts instead of one...and why pay for a full day when you can get a half day for less money?
They need the cheap entry option back, the park has been three quarters empty most days this season, even through sunny June.

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

I'd also suggest opening later. The last couple of years we have seen a evening only event on Fridays during the illuminations, why not try opening at 3 and closing at 10 during the summer instead of 10-5 but advertise it! For most people Friday night is more of the weekend than Sunday.

I appreciate the Friday evenings were dead, but are the day time openings any less dead? At least you are likely to take more on the bars in the evening.

 

[Dar]

It's baffling that they close right as school finishes! Why do they insist on 10am-4pm, when 3pm-9pm is the same amount of time, but means they're more likely to not only get the local kids in but they're also going to get the locals that finish work at 5(ish)!

 

[rob666]

The Friday evenings were dead.
The Saturday night just gone was dead...and dry...and good fun with no queues, I was there...but dead!

 

[RevolutionRuleZ]

As I said though, so are the Friday day times. I could see the logic in reverting back to daytime hours if they had 200 people on park at night, and 2000 during the day. The fact is the numbers were very similar, coasters running almost empty in both scenarios, but people will most likely spend at the bar at 8pm than 11am.

As for Saturday just, why pick the worst Saturday of weather we have had for 2 months to do last minute 10pm close, its almost like they want to be able to say it failed, and use it as a reason not to do it again.

4-5 weeks ago the country was enjoying glorious sunshine till 10-11pm BPB had hour long queues for most coasters and shut at 5pm

 

[AidanCKY]

Yes, that was indeed a post I made elsewhere on the topic!

It’s hard to judge whether the sole pay-one-price system that they’ve been operating since COVID has had a positive or negative impact, as COVID itself threw a considerable spanner in the works, but for what it’s worth, the park actually turned an outstanding pre-tax profit of £8,584,000 during the 2021 season according to the accounts up to March 2022… if that trend is reflected in the next set of accounts, maybe the move to pay-one-price may actually have been beneficial?

2020’s pre-tax loss figure also didn’t seem as terrible as it could have been given that the park was shut until July… the pre-tax loss was £2,941,000 compared to £2,021,000 for 2019.

It’s also worth noting that the introduction of paid non-ride entry actually saw a lower loss than the previous year, so there certainly wasn’t a cliff-edge drop in profits associated with free entry going as some imply.

But as you say, I think Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s financial predicament is too complex to blame on any one factor alone.

I will say that figures you can see publicly probably don't tell the full story. Lots of clever accounting goes on with businesses, especially where lots of money is involved.

A loss could easily very much not be a loss depending on what they've been doing

I know if you look on companies house all the people involved with BPB are linked to a spiders web of other sub companies etc etc