It's a happy case of shark and horror for Nick Varney.

He's the chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, the company behind the Scarborough Sea Life Centre (cue the shark) and York Dungeon (enter the horror).

He is happy because a new £72.5 million deal which has allowed him to switch financial backers means that he has even bigger plans for both these crowd-pleasers.

For instance, watch out for Vampires: Fact Or Fiction, a new exhibition planned for York Dungeon this Easter which will cost about £100,000 to mount.

At least £500,000 will be invested in the already expanding Scarborough Sea Life Centre over the next three to five years.

"We've already invested £500,000 plus in the Sea Life Centre over the past five years and the Dungeon has been upgraded into an amazing attraction," says Mr Varney, who has an acute sense of the value of "brand".

It is something he learned when he joined Rowntree Mackintosh in 1984 as an economics graduate, initially as a marketing assistant, and later as a senior brand manager

Now Merlin practises the same "Black Magic" arts at its 24 major attractions in the UK and Europe, and it works - as five million visitors to all of them annually would testify.

But of all these brands, Mr Varney still has a soft spot for York Dungeon, in Clifford Street. "I met my wife, Liz, at the former Silks nightclub which was above it," he says with a smile.

He gets serious at any suggestion that Merlin Entertainments was in trouble before main backers Apax and JP Morgan stepped out after five years to get a return on their partnership investment and new backer Hermes Private Equity stepped in.

"On the contrary," he says. "We have been doing extremely well each year. In 1999 our cash profit was £6.7 million, in 2000 it was £7.1 million, 2001 it was £8 million and in 2002 £9 million.

"We've yet to announce our 2003 figures which will be good in spite of the Gulf War and hot summer and this year, 2004, I suspect we will be well above the £9 million mark."

So no sharks will be circling there...

Updated: 11:57 Tuesday, February 24, 2004