Tayto Park plans to build huge €14m steel rollercoaster

Says owner Ray Coyle: "If you don’t create something landmark every three or four years, your numbers will start going down and that is the road to closure.”

Ireland’s largest theme park Tayto Park is to lodge a planning application for its biggest attraction to date, an ‘iconic’ €14m steel rollercoaster ride in the coming days.

Owner of Tayto Park Ray Coyle said today that the new rollercoaster will be the same height as the park's 32-metre high Cú Chulainn but will be 400 metres longer than the 1,082-metre long Cú Chulainn ride.

Mr Coyle said that the new rollercoaster “will copper-fasten the future of Tayto Park”.

He said: “The new rollercoaster will be two rollercoasters in one. It will ensure the future of the park. If you don’t create something landmark every three or four years, your numbers will start going down and that is the road to closure.”

Mr Coyle said that the plans for the rollercoaster will be lodged with Meath County Council next week.

Mr Coyle said that the aim is to secure planning in 2019, build the rollercoaster in 2020 and open it to the public in 2021.

He confirmed that the cost of the rollercoaster will be €14m and it will be able to accommodate 1,200 passengers per hour compared to the Cú Chulainn, which carries 1,000 passengers per hour.

Mr Coyle was commenting as new accounts for Tayto Park show that last year it recorded an 8% rise in pre-tax profits to €3.65m.

This followed revenues increasing by 5% to €17.533m - or an average of €92,770 a day in revenues for each of the 189 days Tayto Park was open last year.

Mr Coyle confirmed that 720,000 visitors came to Tayto Park last year and this year numbers will increase by around 3-4% in spite of numbers down for the month of July due to the hot spell.

Mr Coyle said that Tayto Park’s Earnings Before Interest Depreciation Tax and Amortisation (EBITDA) are €7m for last year.

Mr Coyle said that he was “delighted" with the performance of Tayto Park in 2017 and 2018.

Mr Coyle opened Tayto Park “in a field in Co Meath” in October 2010. He said: “Nobody came for six months. I thought we would have to close it down but in the Easter of 2011 people started to come. You learn as you go along.”

Mr Coyle said that the crowds coming to Tayto Park in 2018 will be the highest to date. He said: “Word of mouth is how most people come to Tayto Park - it accounts for around 60%.”

He said that the most popular attraction is the all-wood Cú Chulainn roller coaster which opened in 2015.

He said that 40% of visitors go to the Zoo at Tayto Park with 35% doing the tour of the Tayto factory.

Mr Coyle also stated that Tayto Park receives a very strong trade from Northern Ireland accounting for 24-25% of all customers.

Mr Coyle said that the park has been adding incrementally to its attractions each year.

The park has also been a strong employer in the local area - the 2017 accounts show that numbers employed last year totalled 296 with staff costs of €4.4m.

Tayto Park’s post tax profits last year were €3.1m after paying corporation tax of €549,402.

The company’s assets had a book value of €33.48m at the end of last year.