Eden Project Debts of £5million, Layoffs Threaten

gallygirl

I went once and really enjoyed it, and I thought the food was great. However, it's changed recently and I think they have a bakery place where you tell them after you've eaten what you had, and are charged accordingly - I wonder how much of the 5 million is down to that :rotfl:. I know someone who worked in finance there - he got the impression they were panicking for a while and coming up with badly thought out plans, all of which cost money. Oh, and the catering staff are directly employed (or at least they were ).

PasturesNew

gallygirl wrote: »

... I think they have a bakery place where you tell them after you've eaten what you had, and are charged accordingly - I wonder how much of the 5 million is down to that .

There was recently one of those "night sky" events that went badly wrong there - and it was part of a radio phone in the next day. People were reporting that "people were eating and leaving without paying" and suggested it was a rubbish idea for the over-subscribed event (they expected 1600, planned for 2400 and I think 3000-3500 people turned up, so they had to shut the doors) - and somebody said that the food is a private venture and so what they chose to do was their business and not part of the Eden planning for the night.

There seems to be a high turnover of food outlets there, as every time I read about the Eden somebody's talking about food places I never saw.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

I have been once and loved it. I recommend it to all my friends.

I agree the mediteranean dome is a bit poor compared to the Tropical one, but it is a great day out. I don't think it is that expensive... someone quoted £50 for a family of four... what else can you do for that much of similar quality...

What I would say though is 500 - 700 staff is a STUPID number, why on earth do they need that many people... probably a lot of directors of the place who do screw all and get tidy 6 figure salaries...

Radiantsoul

I think it is pretty good and probably a big tourist draw for that part of the world. It does seem that a £20m turnover is too low for a company with c500 employees though and that is the problem rather than the debt.

The accounts show that about 10% of income is from sponsorship and concerts, 70% visitors, 20% from donations.

PasturesNew

I suspect a lot of their staff are gardeners/horticulturalists.
http://www.edenproject.com/careers/career-profiles

I guess it does bring highly paid jobs to Cornwall.... but that's not a lot of help to anybody who isn't one of those types. What Cornwall needs is lots of different high paid jobs, not just a hand full of specialists in 1-2 areas.

atush

I went summer before last, and enjoyed it. Went for the morning, then went to a seaside town for lunch.

If I am ever in cornwall again (only been twice in the 20 years I've lived in blighty) I would go again. But will see Heligan first.

Good enough use, and some jobs created, for a disused china clay quarry IMHO.