When Michelle Michael’s phone rang at 6.30am on July 28, 2008, her first thought was she had overslept.
Startled and confused, the voice at the end of the line was her former cleaner and the words were ones she could barely comprehend.
“The pier is on fire," it said.
The person was referring to Weston-super-Mare’s Grand Pier, which had been acquired by Ms Michael and her brother Kerry Michael just six months beforehand.
The Edwardian structure was engulfed by a fireball, and the plumes of smoke could be seen as far away as Wales. By the time the new owner reached the front gate, firefighters were already cutting off the bolts and dragging hoses through.
Avon Fire and Rescue had 13 vehicles and more than 100 firefighters working the scene, but despite their efforts the pavilion could not be saved.
Some 14 years on and it’s hard to believe the vast structure was almost razed to the ground. Incredibly, it’s not the first time the pier has burned down. The original pavilion was destroyed by fire on January 13, 1930, before being re-built between 1932 and 1933.
“It was a horrendous time,” Ms Michael told BusinessLive. She is sitting in the pier’s restaurant on a dank winter’s morning. Mist has descended on Weston and - despite assurances there is usually a picturesque view of the coastline - nothing can be seen beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows except thick white clouds.
No cause of fire has ever been determined, but the rebuilding of the Grade II-listed building took two years to complete - and cost millions of pounds.
According to Ms Michael, the building was under-insured at the time and the works cost her and her brother £39m. The pair, who have been working together since 1996, had sold off a garden centre business to buy the famous tourist attraction.
The former commercial lawyer said she and Mr Michael, an insurance broker by trade, “knew nothing” about how to run a pier when they decided to invest in the site in the late noughties.
The duo’s parents had owned a local hotel in Weston while they were growing up, but Ms Michael said she never imagined they would be able to one day buy the town’s most famous attraction.
“We have been in hospitality because of our family, but nothing operational on this scale,” she said. “We have looked at this pier every day of our lives. We never thought it would be for sale or that we would be able to afford to buy it.”
The Grand Pier's previous owners had been machine manufacturers who bought the attraction as a working showroom in 1936 to showcase what they could sell.
The Michael siblings were looking for another garden centre site they could develop when the pier came onto the market. The duo shared common auditors with the previous pier's owners and it was the auditors who told the Michaels the business was for sale.
“Buildings like this, piers in the UK, are generally owned by showman families and are generational, and are never up for sale,” she explained. "The owners [we bought from] were third generation and their children were the first generation to ever be educated beyond 16.”
After agreeing a multi-million pound deal for the attraction, Ms Michael and her brother set about working on a major redevelopment plan for the pier, including ploughing an extra £1m in to revamp the site. The pair were just at the end of the Grand Pier’s redevelopment phase in 2008 when the fire hit. It was the height of the summer season, meaning they missed out on a crucial trading period.
Once the duo could finally begin rebuilding, they were faced with the coldest winter for 35 years - and then the global recession struck in 2009.
“It was a really tough time… we had to lay off staff,” she said. “We were putting our planning permission in to rebuild and there were a lot of difficulties in the process, including with the contractor who promised to deliver in March 2010 but we didn’t open until October so we missed the season.
"We were building against all the odds. It was a huge undertaking for the size of the town.”
However, Ms Michael said they received “amazing support” from other UK piers, including Brighton and Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, and membership organisation BALPPA, which represents the interests of the UK’s commercial leisure parks, piers, zoos, visitor attractions and family entertainment and indoor play centres.
The organisation arranged for Ms Michael and her brother to travel to see dodgems being constructed in Italy, to visit Madame Tussauds in London, and even its international arm in Florida for a behind-the-scenes tour of Disney.
The Grand Pier finally reopened in 2010 after two years and an investment of £52m. It was the first UK pier in 53 years to be rebuilt.
In the decade-and-a-half since, Ms Michael and her brother have transformed the pier into a thriving tourist attraction, bringing investment and jobs to Weston-super-Mare. Before the pandemic, the pier was attracting one million visitors a year.
The Grand Pier currently employs 75 full-time staff, ramping up in peak season to about 200. Ms Michael, who was awarded an MBE for services to tourism in 2012 alongside her brother, also owns nearby seafront restaurant Revo Kitchen & Terrace, which employs 80 staff (120 in peak season).
Alongside the pier’s arcade games - there are more than 500 of them - and rides, including a ghost train and house of mirrors, there is also a museum, soft play area, bar, cafes and restaurant.
The Michael siblings have also invested huge sums into new high-tech attractions for the pier, including two F1 simulators, which cost £1m. According to Ms Michael, they are exact replicas of the ones the F1 team drive when they aren’t in season.
“We have got some really good state-of-the art rides,” she told BusinessLive during a behind-the-scenes tour of the site.
Technology has been an important factor in the attraction’s success, she said. The business now has the ability to track which parts of the pier visitors engage with - and for how long.
“If someone buys a wristband I can track their journey, where they have dwelled and where they have spent their money,” explained Ms Michael. “We are driven by the numbers and that drives what we do. We never overspend. And we make risk-free decisions when we invest but we invest every year.”
One of the biggest investments, however, is one that can’t be seen by visitors.
“Our biggest spend is on the deck and under. Imagine you have to maintain the foundations every year of your home, that’s what we do, to stop it falling over,” she said.
There have been two separate systems in place since the fire - the old one, which holds the ground floor, is piles that are screwed into the sand that move around. The new system involves 69 piles that go 34 metres down into bedrock and don’t move; that is what the building sits on, and everything built in 2010.
"They sit independently of each other, in between each other," she said.
Diversification has been important to the business strategy over the years, and the Grand Pier now also serves as a venue for conferences and events, including weddings, parties, product launches and even as a space for invigilating exams. It has also been featured on BBC’s Don’t Tell the Bride and Flog It.
This Morning presenter Alison Hammond also recently spent a day at the pier as part of a campaign by NatWest and ITV offering support for businesses.
The 'Backing Business' campaign is offering SMEs the chance to access discounted TV advertising, match-funded by ITV, to help promote their company. A mini documentary of Ms Hammond's day at the pier features on NatWest’s 'Backing Business' webpage.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the pier, like many businesses, adapted. Incredibly, it was still able to attract 600,000 visitors in 2021.
“We had to adapt; we installed a one-way system, did track and trace, we mandated face coverings and we will continue to do so, until we get the data to say [Omicron] has come and gone, I think we have that responsibility as a public attraction," said Ms Michael.
But the last two years have not been easy and Brexit has also compounded problems in the hospitality industry. According to Ms Michael, one of the major issues within the sector is attracting staff.
“We were looking for a mixologist for Revo and we ended up speaking to a training company to come and train our people to be mixologists as we just couldn't find anyone,” she said.
“We have a skills shortage - even for low-skilled jobs. Our unemployment levels might be higher than they were, but those people don’t want to work in our sector. What are we going to do about it? The sector as a whole needs help.”
But Ms Michael told BusinessLive she doesn’t like to dwell on problems.
“I just deal with it. We are in business, we are having a good time, we are providing something people want, obviously, and we want to get bigger and better."
This year the pier is looking to grow its events offering. In the coming months it is planning to host a Miss Great Britain heat, a UK strongman heat and it is looking to hold a regional darts competition.
“It’s a great sector to be in," Ms Michael added. "We sell fun. Who else can say that?".
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