Tom Mehrmann: Ocean Park has a licence to thrill
Ocean Park's successful chief executive started as a cleaner in theme parks and shows that he still has the welfare of workers at heart
New animals, fresh rides and more visitors - in recent years Ocean Park has been on an upwards trajectory. And with a water world and two hotels on the way its success shows no signs of slowing.
Who would believe that just a decade ago it was on the verge of closure? Ask the man who got into the driver's seat when the theme park was failing to thrill.
Chief executive Tom Mehrmann has seen the park at its worst, with just HK$100 million free cash to hand - enough to run it for two to three months.
When he walked into the job in 2004, the park had just 3.7 million visitors - 50 per cent less than visitor numbers last year.
It was just recovering from a string of calamities dating back several years. In the late 1990s its water park was closed because of poor attendance, then visitor numbers were hit further by the Asian financial tsunami which almost wiped out its balance sheet.
To top that, the Sars epidemic struck the region in 2003.
It was soon after this that Mehrmann quit his post as vice-president of a theme park in Spain to join Ocean Park in 2004, just as Hong Kong's economy was starting to recover.