Merlin Entertainments Group (Merlin), owner of some of the planet’s best and most exciting attractions, is now the clear market leader in Europe, second only to Disney worldwide. Buying out Gardaland in Italy in 2006 and The Tussauds Group in 2007, visits to its 59 attractions, six hotels and two holiday villages in 13 countries across Europe, North America and Asia rose by 7.6m to 35.1m in 2008, an increase of 28 percent on the year before(1). Enhancing the whole experience for visitors is key to Merlin, which is why the group this year opened its eyes to breakfast in a big way...
Merlin makes magic
The names roll off the tongue. Madame Tussauds, SEA LIFE, The London Eye, LEGOLAND, Alton Towers. Just a few of the brands that need no introduction and have helped the Merlin Entertainments Group solidify its position as an international operator of branded, value family entertainment.
Building a portfolio naturally hedged against external factors such as weather or localised market conditions is key and the latest visitor figures show this is paying off a treat. The group has not, however, escaped the rollercoaster of scrutiny that theme parks, in particular, have come under in recent years in terms of the quality of food and drink provision.
According to research in 2008 from Which? Holiday(2), people might be spoilt for choice when mulling over a family outing, but this isn’t always the case when it comes to sustenance at the UK’s top tourist attractions. In a survey of 3,039 members, just 29 percent of those who visited an attraction in 2007 thought there was a good choice of food, while 58 percent thought it wasn’t very healthy.
Merlin believes, however, that to some extent, these views are based on past prejudices and they certainly do not reflect the significant investment the group has made in improving the choice and quality of food available at its own UK parks, particularly over the last three years, investment acknowledged by both Which? and other opinion formers.
Food development manager for Merlin Entertainments Group Lee Edwards said the appeal of the company’s attractions had gone from strength to strength in recent years, which included major changes to the food and beverage offer.
“Theme park visits are not every day events, they are a treat,” he said. “While families having a day of escapism in a theme park want to bend the rules a bit(3), there is still an obligation, particularly from the market leader, to give consumers eating out at our attractions a choice of good food and healthy food,” he said. “Media pressure, the government and customers called for it and we listened.”
How and when food and drink was offered has also been the subject of substantial review for Merlin. “People travel early to get to theme parks and, to help crowd control at attractions such as Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo and Alton Towers, we let people into the grounds up to an hour before the gate opens,” said Lee, who has been responsible for everything from sourcing products, designing and setting up kitchens to training at the company for five years.
“With restaurants already situated at the parks’ gates, this presented a great opportunity not to be missed. Also, by providing good quality breakfast food, we could potentially help solve another problem - the lunchtime rush.”
Breakfast an attraction!
Breakfast as a distinct eating occasion has, therefore, been a key area of development for the group and, for the 2009 season, is being dished up as both a full, cooked-from-the-kitchen breakfasts and a buffet option between 9.30-11.30am at all major theme park sites, including the Greedy Goblin family pub at Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo, Towers Family Restaurant at Alton Towers and The Coach House at Warwick Castle.
At the Greedy Goblin, for example, full breakfasts (5-8 items), which are cooked healthily and include quality bacon, sausage, scrambled egg, beans and hash brown, start at just £4.95. A six item Vegetarian Breakfast also costs £4.95, while extra toast costs 95p.
It’s a great new development, but that’s only half of it. To support the Food Standards Agency’s new mission to introduce nutrition information for consumers so they can make informative decisions about what they eat out of home, Merlin has signed up to the FSA’s Early Adopter scheme, with its new breakfast menu one of the first in foodservice to feature calorie labelling.
On top of this, Merlin has taken advantage of Heinz Foodservice’s Let’s do BreakfastTM campaign, launched to help make the most of this untapped occasion following the discovery that caterers were failing to appeal widely enough to consumers(4), with 52% of people saying they hadn’t eaten breakfast out of home in the last three months(5).
Merlin’s breakfast table talkers not only feature distinctive bold, green circles highlighting the calories in each meal option, but are headed with the Heinz Foodservice ‘Let’s do BreakfastTM’ logo, a sign that only the best breakfast ingredients are used.
These include Heinz Beanz, Heinz Tomato Ketchup and HP Brown Sauce in opaque, stay clean bottles for table service and Heinz Sauce O Mat, the perfect format for buffet breakfasts.
“Our new breakfast menu incorporates fantastic ingredients, as well as transparent calorie labelling, determined by an independent dietician and nutritional consultant who came into the parks to look at what healthier choices were open to us,” said Lee.
“By having a Let’s do BreakfastTM branded menu, we are making a big deal of the occasion. People like to see brands and, while we don’t have many of them, when we do, they are those consumers love. This kind of branding gives them confidence in breakfast.
“Through FSA interviews, we’ve had very good feedback so far, and introducing breakfast hasn’t cannibalised sales from other meal times. It’s an additional offer which stands alone nicely.”
For more on Heinz Foodservice’s breakfast brands call Heinz Customer Services on 0800 57 57 55. For more on Merlin Entertainments Group food offering, contact Sally Ann Wilkinson or Penny Roberts on 020 8899 6001 or saw@thefirmcomms.com
References
1. Merlin Entertainments Group Performance Review Jan 2007-Dec 2008
2. Which? Holiday – UK Theme Parks 2008
3. Which? Holiday – UK Theme Parks 2008
4. Mintel Breakfast Catering - UK - June 2007
5. Mintel Breakfast Catering - UK - June 2007