__________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mellors Group
Starting off with a single fairground ride in the 1970s, Mellors Group( Mellors) has grown into one of the leisure industry’ s most diverse and far-reaching operations. Today, Mellors runs major attractions across six countries, entertaining millions of visitors each year through a portfolio that spans theme parks, family entertainment centres, themed events and everything in between. James Mellors, Director, shares insight into where it all began.“ Our family business started out in the fairground industry when my father bought his first ride in the early 1970s, and it expanded from there. When my brother and I finished school, we went into the fairground sector but quickly realised we could only grow so far, as it was a very difficult industry with a low ceiling. Thus, we explored different business models and moved away from travelling fairgrounds to focus on operating more static permanent rides as well as themed events,” he begins.
“ From there, we grew significantly, and around 2011, we sold off many of the rides and decided the only way to take things to the next level was to target London. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, we delivered rides and attractions for Live Nation at the Olympic sites. We also started working at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and then with the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for several years after that. In 2013, we won a contract in Dubai to provide and operate a turnkey theme park solution at Global Village, which ran for four years. We kept growing throughout that period, working across many different areas at once. In 2019, we entered Saudi Arabia as part of the Vision 2030 programme, and in 2021 we moved into Qatar and Kuwait simultaneously. When we first entered the Dubai market back in 1998 as part of our fairground operations, we only ran two rides. Today, we operate around 200.” scw-mag. com 77