A rollercoaster 10 years of Tayto Park
This should have been Ray Coyle’s year. Celebrations had been planned to mark the tenth anniversary of Tayto Park - and this summer he should have been cheering on his daughter, Natalya Coyle, in Tokyo in her Olympic bid in the Modern Pentathlon.
The plans had to be put to one side as the country, and the world, ground to a halt at the hands of Covid.
Ray is accepting of it all, the very picture of a man and entrepreneur who has seen it all.
He sits in his office, on the theme park grounds, and recalls, by way of example, when the gates first opened in November 2010. A €12m investment - and no one came.
“I was thinking, this thing is going to go down the drain,” he says. He wasn’t to know that no one opens a theme park in the depths of winter.
And then, the following year, over an unusually balmy Easter, it truly became a case of build it, and they will come. Queues snaked around the gate - and Ray knew Tayto Park had a chance.
It was the Cú Chulainn thrill-seeking rollercoaster that was the real game changer and put the destination on the map. Visitor numbers soared.
And still he’s planning for bigger and better, with plans for two steel rollercoasters, created by teams who make rides in Disney and Universal, on the cards for 2023.
Once the rollercoasters are built, a hotel come next.
In the meantime, the nearby family-friendly CityNorth Hotel caters for much of the park’s overnight visitors.
When Tayto Park turns 15, it’ll be unrecognisable.
Not that the new plans have been plain sailing either; planning permission was only secured after a €1.5m spend on noise reduction after local objections.
“If it doesn’t go to appeal we are through the door,” he says. And if it doesn’t go his way? “What can you do? You’d start again. It’s part of business.” Ray is well used to starting again.
“I got into crisps by growing spuds,” he said.
“I made lots of money in the mid-70s, then the market collapsed.” He owed the bank €1.2 million - and came up with a unique way to repay his debts.
He would raffle off his farm.
“I was delivering potatoes to Wexford, I stopped for tea and a ham sandwich and saw someone was raffling a boat. I had 365-acre farm and I had a really bad price for it - I thought if he can raffle a boat I can raffle a farm.” 4,000 tickets at €300 a ticket - and the debt was repaid.
“I got legal advice from a barrister,” he says.
Did he think you were mad? “Stone mad,” he laughs. “But sure they thought I was stone mad when I opened this place too.
“A lot of people said it to me afterwards - people tend to do that, they say, 'well we didn’t want to say it to you'.”
He went on to set up Largo Foods, deciding there was space for a new player in the Irish snack market. Hunky Dorys followed, and with that success, he ended up buying the Tayto brand outright.
The idea of a theme park was always in the back of his mind.
So Mr Tayto ran for election. Later came his book, and his search for a wife.
He went on to sell Largo Foods, to German brand Intersnack, stepping down from the board three years ago. His park, he says, markets the brand.
“If you say Tayto Park you think Tayto," he says.
Ten years after the gates first opened, at one point it was assumed it may not open at all to mark the anniversary.
There was a false start in June, an announcement of an opening that had to be delayed for a couple of weeks to meet government guidelines.
Today, it’s certainly a different experience - temperature check on arrival, masks while you queue - but there’s still the sound of excited screams, beaming kids everywhere, as you weave your way from the Cú Chulainn, to the Viking Voyage water ride.
Against the odds, Ray has managed to mark a decade of Tayto Park.
“We are lucky to be opened,” he says.
“Financially that would have been an awful strain.
“We’ll hope to get 35% or 40% of last year so we’ll cover wages and overheads - we’re not losing money.
“The numbers are less but it’s not just this park - there’s a reserve, a fear people want to be sure it’s ok.”
Ray understands their concerns; he’s a family man too. His son Charles works alonside him, as general manager of the theme park.
“He came here after college - I wanted him to work in bigger businesses for experience but he loves it.”
He’s incredibly proud too of his daughter Natalya.
“Hers is a hard one, training six days a week. You have to be disciplined.”
Sitting in his office 10 years on from that quiet winter opening, I ask Ray Coyle how he feels today. He pauses.
”Older and bolder’,” he says, laughing.
“I’ve been growing potatoes and this is the most fun business there is - I stroll around the park and there’s a buzz, I don’t feel it’s work.
"I work to live, not live to work.“
It offers family packages which include entry tickets for Tayto Park, starting from €185, which includes a one night family break in a family room with breakfast and a family pass to Tayto Park. www.citynorthhotel.com
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