Merlin reaches £1bn turnover
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Merlin Entertainments has passed the GBP1 billion turnover figure for the first time within its full-year results for 2012.
In the 52 weeks up to 29 December 2012 the attraction operator saw visitors numbers improve 16.1% to 54 million, with revenues up 15.2% to GBP1.074bn and operating profits up 16.5% to GBP258m.
Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin said the group was “particularly pleased” with the results considering the wettest weather on record in Europe, the Eurozone crisis and the Olympics.
“Merlin made further substantial progress in 2012, beating our profit target for the thirteenth year in a row, due to the consistent and successful execution of our diversification and expansion strategy. We have continued to add to our world class global portfolio of attractions, which is balanced by geography, product and demographics,” he said. “The successful roll-out of Midway attractions continues, with a particular focus on cluster locations, as does our ongoing investment in the development of the existing estate.”
The group opened seven new attractions in Asia, North America and Europe in 2012, spending GBP163m on investing into its existing attraction and GBP71m on new business.
Its LEGOLAND parks and Midway attractions (LEGOLAND, Madame Tussauds, SEA LIFE) have performed well and its theme parks were resilient.
In 2013 the group will open a LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Toronto, Germany and New York as well as a hotel at LEGOLAND California. In addition a Madame Tussauds will open in Tokyo; a Dungeon attraction in Berlin and a SEA LIFE Centre in Manchester.
