Tayto Park to spend €30m on three new rollercoasters

The operator of Tayto Park is to spend €30 million on three new rollercoasters for the Co Meath theme park.

Raymond Coyle confirmed on Friday that work is currently progressing on a dinosaur-themed rollercoaster – Dino Coaster – that will be complete by February of next year.

Mr Coyle said work would then commence in March or April on the ‘two-in -one’ rollercoaster which is made up of a 31m high and 748m long suspended thrill coaster and a 24.2m high 238m long family boomerang ride.

Mr Coyle secured planning permission for that project after a more than two year planning battle last March. He said on Friday that those two rollercoasters would be complete by the end of 2023.

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Mr Coyle confirmed that the investment on the three rollercoasters would “be over €30 million”.

Commenting on the company’s latest accounts, Mr Coyle said the theme park was having “a very good year this year with numbers up on last year”.

Covid restrictions

Tayto Park was shut for much of last year under Covid restrictions and that, Mr Coyle said, was the chief factor behind revenue more than halving at parent company Ashbourne Visitor Centre Ltd, from €18.83 million to €9.27 million.

The company recorded a pretax loss of €1.72 million compared with a pretax profit of €2.47 million in 2019.

In a note with the accounts, directors said that they were satisfied with the performance of the company given market conditions in 2020.

Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) were €1.48 million – down from €5.8 million in 2019.

Numbers employed by the park business fell by 120 people to 143 staff in 2020, which saw staff costs come back to €3.7 million from €5.3 million.

The company’s accumulated profits at the end of last year totalled €18.8 million with cash funds jumping €3.36 million to €6.66 million.