Smiler crash made 2015 "the most difficult year in Merlin’s history"
THE accident on the Smiler ride at Alton Towers which seriously injured five people has also affected the theme park owner’s financial results.
Two women had legs amputated as a result of the crash on the ride on June 2 last year, which an investigation by the park found to be caused by human error.
Nick Varney, chief executive of Alton Towers’ parent company Merlin Entertainments, described 2015 as “the most difficult year in Merlin’s history”.
He said: “The accident at Alton Towers in June and the media coverage around it, led to a significant reversal of the strong momentum we had seen in our UK resort theme parks business and consequent impact on overall company performance.
“More importantly, people we had a responsibility to safeguard sustained serious injuries and ride safety processes we believed robust on this occasion proved inadequate.
“Our focus since June has therefore necessarily been on ensuring we support those injured in every way we can while putting in place extensive measures to ensure such an accident cannot happen again.”
He confirmed further investment in engineering and health and safety, which includes the appointment of additional compliance managers in all of its theme parks and a new group engineering function.
Revenues in Merlin’s resort theme park division, which includes Alton Towers, fell 12.4% on a like-for-like basis for the 52 weeks to December 26, 2015.
Overall, visitors numbers across all of Merlin’s attractions edged up 0.3% to 62.9m, resulting in a 3.9% increase in revenue, on a constant currency basis, to £1.28bn.
The company said “it is possible that additional uninsured costs and, depending on the outcome of the HSE investigation, financial penalties may be incurred”.
