Alton Towers is to make up to 190 redundancies after a downturn in visitor numbers in the wake of a serious rollercoaster crash.
The owner of the Staffordshire-based attraction, Merlin Entertainments, last month revealed a sharp drop in revenue across its theme park division as visitors stayed away following the accident on The Smiler rollercoaster this summer. Five people were seriously injured in the crash on 2 June, which resulted in the 500-acre theme park being closed for four days.
The group said: “At the end of a very difficult year, Alton Towers Resort has confirmed a proposed restructure of the business to be completed in time for the opening of the new season in March 2016.
“Regretfully however, it may result in the loss of up to 190 salaried jobs across the resort.
“We anticipate some of these will be accounted for by a programme of non-replacement of existing vacancies, early retirement, redeployment elsewhere in the group, and voluntary redundancy.
“As soon as employee representatives have been appointed a consultation period will begin.”
Alton Towers closed on Monday for its annual out-of season break. Around 2,000 people work at the resort.
