With our ride operations, guest experience and activities rebooted in 2024, we are now activating the two other highest-margin levers inside the parks: Food & Beverages (F&B) and Retail. Together they convert footfall into predictable, scalable profit while reinforcing the IP stories—Maja, the Smurfs, SpongeBob and PAW Patrol—that differentiate our parks.
- F&B Upside. Most of our guest eat in the our parks. Our aim is to expand and optimise our family-oriented offering, introducing IP-themed F&B offerings, new & optimised Point of Sales and streamlining service through mobile order and self-checkout, we aim to raise average F&B per cap while improving the total guest experience.
- Retail Upside. Memories monetise best when they can be taken home. A revamped merchandising purchase strategy, optimised offering based on our IP’s and themed shops and merchandise drops synced with streaming releases will lift retail spend and create long lasting (tangible) memories for our guests.
To achieve these important objectives we have onboarded 2 very experienced professionals both with years of experience in the Themepark business. For the next coming 12 months Lee Edwards will be focussing on our optimising our F&B strategy and operations. Mark Schiffmann will be implementing a revamped Retail strategy, including the full merchandising category and Point of Sales. To embed this Retail strategy in our Majaland Parks in Poland we appointed Dorata Piatkowska as Retail Manager Poland.
Let’s introduce Lee and Mark!
Introduction – Lee Edwards
Lee has dedicated his career to the food industry. After training at Catering College, he progressed to Head Chef and Area Chef roles at Allied Domecq. In 1999, he transitioned into Food Development with Eldridge Pope, overseeing 130 venues. In 2004, he joined Merlin Entertainments Group, revolutionizing theme park food quality globally. He has led concept creation, operational improvements, and international hotel and resort food rollouts.
In 2014, Lee founded Peppercorn Food Solutions, a specialist consultancy for the food industry. Peppercorn quickly evolved, merging with Swan Creative to form Acacia Holdings. Today, Peppercorn Food Solutions delivers end-to-end food solutions, setting new industry standards worldwide. Lee continued to lead projects for Merlin’s new parks in Japan, Dubai, China and hotels in the UK, Italy, and the USA.
His passion remains bringing innovative, market-leading food concepts to life across the globe.
Lee, why are you so excited about this role with Momentum Leisure?
I’m excited to embark on this food and beverage (F&B) project with Momentum Leisure. This collaboration perfectly aligns with our experience and passion for creating exceptional F&B experiences in the visitor attraction sector.
Momentum Leisure has established a strong foundation in the industry, and our goal is to elevate the food and beverage offerings to enrich the overall visitor experience.
By infusing creativity and quality into the F&B services, I aim to complement the attractions and make each visit even more memorable.
Introduction – Mark Schiffmann
He comes from a retail background and started his career in the leisure industry in 1996 at Warner Bros. Movie World in Germany. Since then, Mark has worked in various positions within the leisure and licensing industry, developing a good understanding of intellectual property and brand integrity. Specializing in Retail, Games & Photo, he worked as Retail Director at Movie Park Germany for several years.
In addition to the P&L responsibility, it is the creative side of the business that makes this industry exciting for him. Mark was involved in everything from store concept and design to product development, one of which won an IAAPA Brass Ring Award.
As a retail consultant he has worked on projects for Madame Tussaud's, Europa-Park, PortAventura, The Land of Legends as well as various zoos, museums and city attractions such as Dubai Frame and At the Top/Burj Khalifa.
With over 25 years in the leisure industry, Mark is a seasoned retail and licensing professional with a wide range of experience, both locally and internationally.
Mark, why are you so excited about this role with Momentum Leisure?
I am looking forward working together with Wouter Dekkers again and to be a part of the exciting journey of Momentum Leisure. On top of that, the newly addition of Nickelodeon to the IP portfolio brings me back to familiar characters like Sponge Bob, Patrick and Paw Patrol - it feels a little bit like a family reunion to me.
Together with the world-known Smurfs and the beloved Studio 100 characters it offers a world of possibilities to create an amazing and successful retail environment.
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