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M&D's Theme Park goes into Administration

Matt N said:
As if things couldn't get any worse for M&D's, staff fired from the park are now trying to claim back cash from the business through a legal bid: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5562881/mds-staff-legal-bid-money/

I feel the next few weeks and months will be difficult for both M&D's and the staff members who were sadly made redundant; how come the staff weren't furloughed under the government's scheme?
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I’m just picking out the furloughed questions from your post and I just wanted to touch on a couple of points.

Point 1. A company actually needs enough money in reserves to actually pay the staff from their own bank account - then the company can claim the money back from the government.
This means the company needs money in the first place and with the estimated amount of staff the park was employing this is easily in excess of £75,000.

Point 2. The company is still liable for their share of the National Insurance and Pension Contributions this adds to funds needed to furlough to probably a minimum of £10,000.

So basically if there is no money there, the only answer is to make the staff redundant and if you take the Brexit court cases in Scotland - they love to get everyone involved.
 
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Bentleya said:
I’m just picking out the furloughed questions from your post and I just wanted to touch on a couple of points.

Point 1. A company actually needs enough money in reserves to actually pay the staff from their own bank account - then the company can claim the money back from the government.
This means the company needs money in the first place and with the estimated amount of staff the park was employing this is easily in excess of £75,000.

Point 2. The company is still liable for their share of the National Insurance and Pension Contributions this adds to funds needed to furlough to probably a minimum of £10,000.

So basically if there is no money there, they only answer is to make them redundant and if you take the Brexit court cases in Scotland - they love to get everyone involved.
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Ah right; I thought the furloughing was available to all companies. Thanks for the clarification @Bentleya; this would definitely explain why M&D's didn't go for this option when considering what to do with their staff!
 
Matt N said:
Ah right; I thought the furloughing was available to all companies. Thanks for the clarification @Bentleya; this would definitely explain why M&D's didn't go for this option when considering what to do with their staff!
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It is available to all companies and it would have been an option to take; however - financially if you don’t have the funds available you wouldn’t have chosen that route.

I’m sure the company would have weighed out the options; but keeping employees on furlough for X amount of months stills costs the company a significant amount of money and it’s beneficial long term to make the redundancies soon rather than later and not to lead them down a 'garden path'.

I’m also sure the company has exhausted all viable options with sourcing additional funding and ultimately the banks and the companies accountants have said enough is enough.
 
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Considering Dreamland, that is owned by a council so easily threw in the towel for 2020 and sacked 50+ staff rather than opt for furlough probably says enough about using that scheme within the tourism or leisure sectors.

It is sad because the news from across the pond is far more encouraging with life slowly getting back to normality and coronavirus measures probably being scrapped very soon altogether (see Germany / The Netherlands). I really do think the same will happen in the UK quite soon but the clickbait fear mongers have more power here it seems (and no consequences for the UTTER tripe they publish btw and yes I include the BBC too). It is weird because in the one country where people trust the media the least in Europe we also have a media that make the most outlandish claims and have absolutely no sense of morality or offer a level of perspective anymore, and that doesn't seem to be getting better at all. I guess you can sell more papers & clicks with "Worse than the Blitz!" than "Encouraging signs the virus might be losing its grip on the UK." I cry over the death of so many British citizens. I wouldn't cry over the death of our media outlets.
 
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From a business perspective - it is important to point out that M&D's went into administration. Entering this process means no money is in the bank so as @Bentleya said, not really an option. Also, furlough exists to try and retain staff when a business is not operations meaning that cash flow can be eased. However - the company must still be trading and become operational once lockdown is lifted. Truth is this wouldn't have been possible as M&D's does not have enough cash reserves to see through a period of closure.

All in all - furlough was never going to be an option in this case.
 
AndrewRollercoaster said:
Considering Dreamland, that is owned by a council so easily threw in the towel for 2020 and sacked 50+ staff rather than opt for furlough probably says enough about using that scheme within the tourism or leisure sectors.

It is sad because the news from across the pond is far more encouraging with life slowly getting back to normality and coronavirus measures probably being scrapped very soon altogether (see Germany / The Netherlands). I really do think the same will happen in the UK quite soon but the clickbait fear mongers have more power here it seems (and no consequences for the UTTER tripe they publish btw and yes I include the BBC too). It is weird because in the one country where people trust the media the least in Europe we also have a media that make the most outlandish claims and have absolutely no sense of morality or offer a level of perspective anymore, and that doesn't seem to be getting better at all. I guess you can sell more papers & clicks with "Worse than the Blitz!" than "Encouraging signs the virus might be losing its grip on the UK." I cry over the death of so many British citizens. I wouldn't cry over the death of our media outlets.
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Dreamland is not owned by a council, though. It's owned by a limited company with a consortium of investors known as Arrowgrass, which last year also went under. The reality is that they don't have the capital to keep afloat, especially the amount of staff they had - so they've now dropped down to a skeleton team of 'important' people from each department (primarily department heads etc.) that are all on reduced pay until this all clears up, which will be the 2021 season.
 
Lofty said:
Yeah, they made +50 redundancies, but have stripped their operation back to (hopefully) claw back some of the OPEX. The Coronavirus is simply another straw on the camels back, though.
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So are you saying that they’re only doing this now in order to ensure their operational longevity post-COVID?
 
This just got weird; in a very interesting move, it would seem that the directors of M&D’s have now started a new company in order to buy the park and wipe out all of their debts so that they can restart the park once COVID-19 is over: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/mds-bosses-set-up-new-22005621

Good luck to them in their restarting, but I must admit that it’s one of the strangest theme park business actions I think I’ve ever seen occur.

Also, it would seem that the park will be taking on the name Lochview Theme Park as opposed to M&D’s when it restarts.
 
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Matt N said:
This just got weird; in a very interesting move, it would seem that the directors of M&D’s have now started a new company in order to buy the park and wipe out all of their debts so that they can restart the park once COVID-19 is over: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/mds-bosses-set-up-new-22005621

Good luck to them in their restarting, but I must admit that it’s one of the strangest theme park business actions I think I’ve ever seen occur.

Also, it would seem that the park will be taking on the name Lochview Theme Park as opposed to M&D’s when it restarts.
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It’s a pretty common move for struggling businesses to make, morally questionable perhaps, but allows them to wipe the slate clean rather than struggling on trying to recover from previous issues. I suppose the move means the underlying business was reasonable enough despite the park having a feel of neglect and just scraping by. So M&Ds might not be gone after all,um...yay?

Lochview Theme Park is already getting off to a better start, I always though M&Ds was an awful and tacky name for the park. Would be nice if they would invest just a little into the park to make it half decent.
 
It's incredibly common for that to happen, to be fair.

It's a shame because they have quite big plans to turn it into a live entertainment venue that hosts outdoor gigs, concerts, theatre and other live entertainment and not rely to heavily on the 'theme park' aspect of the site. Hopefully, they can bring that concept back and run with it to generate further income post COVID.
 
I do hope that they invest in the park in terms of landscaping also. Kinda hope they get bought out by a company like the Looping group or Aspro, may give them a better chance and potential for the park.
 
Lofty said:
It's a shame because they have quite big plans to turn it into a live entertainment venue that hosts outdoor gigs, concerts, theatre and other live entertainment and not rely to heavily on the 'theme park' aspect of the site. Hopefully, they can bring that concept back and run with it to generate further income post COVID.
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Looking at pictures of the park, it seems like that transformation could be done over a weekend. The entire park looks like it was assembled using cranes and forklifts in an afternoon, and everything looks ready to be folded up and moved at a moment's notice. Apart from the entrance building, does it even have any permanent structures at all?
 
CrashCoaster said:
I do hope that they invest in the park in terms of landscaping also. Kinda hope they get bought out by a company like the Looping group or Aspro, may give them a better chance and potential for the park.
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That ain't gonna happen - it's a family run business and always will be. They're actually quite a nice family, too.
 
so they go into administration, all their creditors loose money , they then start a new company debt free o_O shame on them
 
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