Adventure tourism giant will emerge from latest challenge ‘stronger again’
AN ADVENTURE giant says it’s aiming to come out of yet another crisis stronger as it looks to expand in Wales and beyond.
Zip World says it emerged from Brexit and Covid in good health and plans to do the same with the cost-ofliving crisis.
Despite inflation biting, it is still taking on new sites and making investments at existing locations in Wales.
This includes new reflective accommodation pods and a filter lane off the A470 at Zip World Fforest in Betws-yCoed and planned investment in Tyny-Coed hotel in Capel Curig, which the brand snapped up earlier in the year.
The firm – which now employs 850 staff in peak summer – has another site on the site of the former Tower Colliery in Hirwaun, south Wales, and has also acquired sites in the Lake District and Manchester.
It said the secret to bucking the trend in Covid was investing in marketing as others pulled back, and would not let the current issues derail its plans.
Zip World founder Sean Taylor said: “When Covid hit and before furlough was announced we thought we would have to do major redundancies and I thought, ‘if we do these redundancies it is the end because I will lose the skillset of the company.’ No-one else does what we do so it is hard to replace that skillset.
“Furlough came in but we were still looking at where we can do efficiencies but Andrew [Hudson, commercial director] comes in and wanted to double the marketing spend, the first reaction was ‘what the f***?”
But on reflection it was the strategy they went with and it has paid dividends.
Andrew said: “I saw an opportunity because there was a new audience and the usual competition was not in that space. When other businesses were pulling back we did the opposite, we doubled down and we expanded our audience by 50%.”
Sean added: “We were suddenly up there with the big names in terms of audience, firms that probably have huge rooms of marketeers, we had three.”
This push on marketing and a focus on events like Ffear Fforest (around Hallowe’en) and Zipmas (around Christmas) has extended the season – boosting turnover and the number of staff they can carry through the year.
Sean said: “It all strengthens the brand and extends the season, it means we can keep on employing a lot more people. I think we have bucked a trend. We do spend a lot of money on marketing, you can’t expect to get the reward and the results if you don’t invest.”
There have been setbacks – like the technical issues that delayed the planned summer launch of the Skyflyer
in Rhyl. This will now launch next March.
Sean said: “When you push the boundaries, pushing that envelope with things that are new and pioneering, then you are going to get a few knocks. But if we were going steady with something mundane then we wouldn’t have had the amount of people we’ve had here. We’ve had up to 1m people at our sites.”
The latest national, and global, crisis is the cost of living, with inflation hitting every home and business in the UK.
Sean said: “Like everyone else we have wage inflation and other costs rising, and you can’t really put 10% on some of our attractions because it’s a vicious circle and our customers are also dealing with inflation. We are looking at efficiencies but can’t be so efficient that you cut your legs off and stop employing the people who will help you grow. If it is challenging for us it must be horrendous for some others.
“The brand is everything, that trust in the brand, not just from customers but also suppliers, and from the team, that they will be paid and looked after. We are positive and like we did with Covid, like we did with the exit from Europe, we will come out stronger again, we are a resilient business – there is high demand for what we do.”
Andrew said: “We keep reinventing, giving reasons for people to revisit, being clever and creative, we are about to trial night zips. The wider situation has also not stopped us developing, we are building right now at Penrhyn Quarry, using a local supplier for the work, we absorbed a price increase.”
He added: “We are moving from a day destination to a short-stay destination.”