Lagans approached Tayto Park boss for Vaults deal
BELFAST cement dynasty the Lagan family approached Ray Coyle in recent weeks with a proposal for the Tayto Park owner to take a stake of up to 51pc in their Vaults Live tourism venue.
The Lagans, who had previously gone face to face with Coyle in a corporate battle to take over the Dublin 8 venue, were seeking a new investor with a “proven track record in the entertainment industry, together with their experienced sales and marketing team, to help drive the company’s development”, according to a prospectus seen by the Sunday Independent.
The rollercoaster ride of Dublin’s newest — but now soon to be shuttered — tourism venue is set to come to a halt on January 26 even though Coyle is understood to still be considering the proposal. “It is with regret that despite investment over a prolonged period, the Vaults project is no longer viable,” Lagan Investments said in a statement.
The prospectus showed that the venue had an average of just 68 visitors a day during the year to the end of September 2019.
Frontier’s first full year of trading to that date saw it incur trading losses of nearly €2m, but the new rescue plan would turn this around to break even by 2021, with a €140,000 profit projected the following year, it said.
THE Lagan family approached Tayto Park boss Ray Coyle in recent weeks with a proposal to take a stake of up to 51pc in the Vaults Live tourism venue. The family made the move before deciding last weekend to close the struggling Dublin 8 tourist attraction for good.
Now, it has emerged that Coyle, who just 18 months ago lost out in a head-to-head corporate battle with the Lagans for control of the venue, is still considering the proposal and has not ruled out becoming a last-minute white knight for the business.
It is just the latest twist in a saga that in 2018 saw the Lagans and Coyle on opposite sides of a corporate battle for control of a tourism venue built around live-action shows featuring Dracula, Molly Malone and Ikea the Viking.
One well-placed source said there was “a glimmer of hope” that a deal could be done.
Nevertheless, last weekend, the Lagans informed staff that the venue would close for good after its scheduled shows on January 26. And, when contacted for comment, the Lagans were quick to dismiss any hope of a last-minute stay of execution for the quiet but critically acclaimed venue.
“It is with regret that despite investment over a prolonged period, the Vaults project is no longer viable,” they said in a statement issued by their investment company. “Lagan Investments has instructed consultants to explore future options for the venue, which we are reviewing. We continue to invest in and support a broad range of businesses and startups throughout Ireland.”
In the proposal sent to investors before Christmas, the Belfast-based Lagans, who sold their huge construction materials group for £455m (€534m) in April 2018, said they were “seeking an investor who will bring with them a proven track record in the entertainment industry, together with their experienced sales and marketing team, to help drive the company’s development”.
In return, the Lagans were willing to offer up to 51pc of the shareholding of Frontier Entertainment, the company which controls the Vaults.
Any last-ditch rescue of the venue would be the second time that the Vaults required external intervention to stay afloat.
In the summer of 2018, before the venue opened, its then biggest shareholder, Dublin-based Brookdale, petitioned for examinership after raising concerns about cost over-runs.
Brookdale, headed by businessman Barry Kenny, backed an investment proposal by Coyle but the two original co-founders — broadcaster and entrepreneur Paul Blanchfield and former No Frontiers TV producer Gerald Heffernan — backed a rival bid that subsequently emerged from the Lagan family.
The Lagans won out and took control, with the promise of a badly needed €3m shot in the arm. But the delay caused by the examinership process meant the Vaults’ October 2018 opening missed the end of the busy tourist season.
And the arrival of the Lagans was not good news for everyone at the Vaults.
Jude Lagan took the helm and began to cut costs in order to make the business “leaner, more adaptable, while maintaining the high standards set”, according to the prospectus. Not everyone agreed with the approach.
“They are cement people and instead of putting in the marketing campaign that is needed in a tourism and theatrical business, they treated it like a struggling cement business and just cut costs wherever they could,” claimed one source.
But another disagreed: “The Lagans couldn’t have been any more supportive. Startups in this sector are very, very difficult and last year was difficult for the entire sector.”
Figures contained in the prospectus show the extent of the cutbacks at the venue.
Overheads of almost €1.5m for the year to the end of September 2019 were projected to fall to less than €500,000 in this current year.
By November, the average monthly marketing budget was slashed from more than €40,000 to just €6,000.
When the marketing staff left, they were not replaced. Other key operational people left too, as did co-founder Blanchfield.
Tickets were discounted and the show was cut from seven days a week down to two or three.
Crucially, co-founder Heffernan stayed on and the Vaults continued to benefit from largely positive reviews. But that was not translating into footfall.
On average, just 68 people a day were coming through the doors.
The Lagans’ plan to bring in a new shareholder with more tourism experience and their own marketing team envisaged the Vaults making a profit in 2021. Visitor numbers would go from 18,000 in 2019 to 80,000 in 2023, said the prospectus.
Frontier’s first full year of trading to September 30, 2019 saw it incur trading losses of nearly €2m, but the new rescue plan would turn this around to break even by 2021, with a €140,000 profit projected the following year, it said.
“With the right strategic partner and marketing plan, the Vaults is ideally positioned to challenge some of its competitors in the industry and outperform its targets for the next three years,” said the prospectus.
As of now, Molly Malone will sell her final mussels and Dracula will close his coffin for the last time at the Liberties venue on January 26.
But no one who has closely followed the story of the Vaults in recent years is quite ready to rule out the possibility of it once more rising from the dead.