Merlin Entertainments
Sales growth 6.7%
Merlin had already indicated that this would be a quiet year, in terms of capital spending and new openings, and that the second half would struggle to match the performance this time last year.
As it turned out, the all-important months of July and August were respectable enough. Growth across the group was 5 per cent, against a figure of 8.1 per cent reported for the first half.
The standout was its Legoland parks. Midway Attractions was hit by the unrest in Thailand, where it has an aquarium and a Madame Tussauds, but strong performances elsewhere held its performance to that group average.
The underperformer was the resort theme parks, which showed little growth. These were up against difficult comparators,