The Tussauds Group was a visitor attractions company based in London, United Kingdom. Its portfolio of attractions included the Madame Tussauds waxworks, Heide Park Resort in Germany, The London Eye, Warwick Castle, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Chessington World of Adventures.
The company was purchased by The Blackstone Group and merged with Merlin Entertainments in 2007.
Contents
History
The 1700s
The physician, Philippe Curtius began to create organs and biological structures from wax. After creating organs, Curtius went on to recreate notable people in society out of the medium too. Curtius put these models on display to the public in Berne, Switzerland where they caught the attention of the French royal family. In 1765, the royal family invited Curtius to display his exhibits in Paris. When moving to Paris, Curtius bought with him a housekeeper and her daughter, Marie Grosholtz, who Curtius then took on as an apprentice of his work.
Under Curtius’ teaching, Marie became renowned for her modelling, completing portraits of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire. This led to Marie being invited to the royal court at Versailles where she was employed as a teacher. In 1795, Marie married François Tussaud with whom she had two sons. After the French Revolution in 1789, Marie continued her modelling and made death masks of her deceased ex-employers. Upon the death of Curtius in 1794, Marie inherited his estate, including his properties and his workshop.
The 1800s
Overseas interest in the French Revolution led Marie Tussaud to travel to England and display her work there. Tussaud travelled the British Isles with her work as she was prevented from returning to France due to the war between Britain and France. After travelling with her models, Tussauds bought her first property in London's Baker Street in 1835, for the purpose of displaying her wax figures. The large property allowed her to display the exhibits that she used on tour as well as create new models and exhibitions. Marie Tussaud died in 1850 and the business was left to her two sons. Her grandchildren then moved the business to a permanent residence in Marylebone Road.
The 1900s
In 1926, Madame Tussauds became a limited company. In the 1960s, Tussauds was looking to expand beyond the United Kingdom and opened their first international exhibition in Amsterdam. This exhibition featured different wax figures to those on show in London. The Dutch exhibition moved to the more central location of Dam Square in 1991. The company made its first acquisition with Wookey Hole Caves and Mill in Somerset and in 1976 bought Tolgus tin plant in Cornwall, and also Warwick Castle in Warwickshire.
In the early 1980s, Madame Tussauds approached S. Pearson and Son, now Pearson PLC, to acquire Chessington Zoo for potential development. This led to Pearson purchasing the company and transferring Chessington Zoo's ownership to Tussauds. The group redeveloped it as Chessington World of Adventures, opened in 1987, more than doubling the visitor attendance.
In 1989, the Tussauds Group sold Wookey Hole caves. In the same year, they opened the Rock Circus in the London Pavilion which focused on a rock and roll theme.
In 1990, the company bought Alton Towers for £60 million and began to redevelop the park, including the introduction of the £20 million Alton Towers Hotel in 1996. The Madame Tussauds site in London also underwent development during the nineties, with renovations costing £1 million. The group's expansion resulted in the company moving to larger headquarters in 1992.
In 1997, Madame Tussauds reintroduced travelling exhibitions. The tour started in Melbourne, Australia, before moving on to Sydney. After touring Australia, the site travelled to Singapore in 1999 then on to Hong Kong in 2000. However, the company liked Hong Kong's location and established a permanent exhibition in the Peak Tower.
The Tussauds group moved into the European market by acquiring a 40% stake in Port Aventura theme park in Spain, which was being developed for £300 million to open in 1995. Tussauds contributed to its development as they were a primary shareholder and subsequently took on the park's management. The new development quickly bought in 2.7 million visitors annually. The 40% stake was sold in 1998 and its management of the park ended as the company looked to increase its portfolio in the United Kingdom, subsequently purchasing Thorpe Park, in south-east England in 1998.
The 2000s
In 2000, the London Eye launched, in which Tussauds had a 33% stake, along with British Airways and Marks Barfield. The site was managed by Tussauds and soon became one of the United Kingdom's most popular attractions.
Tussauds continued to look for acquisitions in Europe and in 2002 opted to buy Heide Park in Soltau, Germany. The park was among the country's largest, and helped to make Tussauds one of the most popular attraction groups. In the same year, the company shut down the Rock Circus exhibition in the London Pavilion because of falling visitor figures.
Charterhouse Development Capital allowed the company to invest £300 million into its attractions which helped increase profits by £185 million as of 2002. The Tussauds group launched a new £100 million investment plan which led to the development of a new £40 million themed hotel, at Alton Towers. The themed hotel, Splash Landings, opened in 2003. Tussauds and Charterhouse Development Capital then looked to increase its stake in the London Eye, hoping to buy out British Airways.
In 2004, one of the shareholders of the London Eye, Marks Barfield, accused the Tussauds group of purposefully opposing a refinancing offer in order to gain full control of the wheel. The attraction made a trading profit, but the company had 25% interest payments on a debt that arose from a £56 million loan from British Airways in 1999. By this point the debt had accumulated to be around £130 million. David Marks, the director at Marks Barfield, said that British Airways supported the idea of refinancing the London Eye but the Tussauds group blocked the deal at every opportunity. Marks went on to comment that without a refinancing deal the London Eye would not have long-term financial security in the future as it would not be able to develop as an attraction. The company also went on to say that the running costs of the London Eye and the large debt repayments prevented the company from making developments at the attraction that would cost £4 million. The company had hoped to redevelop a gift shop and the ticketing system at the London Eye but without refinancing it would not be able to complete them. The Tussauds group denied blocking any deals, in turn suggesting that no alternative methods had been put forward. In a statement, the company said that it had offered to buy out the other two shareholders in 2003, and again in 2004, believing that one primary shareholder would be able to negotiate better terms on their debt repayments.