Merlin Entertainments launches restaurant and cinema discount card

EXCLUSIVE: Merlin Entertainments has launched a restaurant and cinema discount card for its employees.

The Gourmet Society card, which provides employees with discounts at more than 6,000 restaurants in the UK and Ireland and gives staff discounted cinema tickets, is open to more than 8,000 Merlin employees across the UK and Ireland.

The employer paid a fee to the Gourmet Society to enable employees to receive the card for free for a year.

Debra Corey, group compensation and benefits director at Merlin Entertainments Group, said: “We wanted to extend our voluntary benefits offering.”

The employer launched the voluntary benefit at its second annual benefits roadshow, to give employees the opportunity to be face-to-face with the benefits provider.

Merlin produced ‘winning’ scratchcards, so every UK and Ireland employee ‘won’ the benefit.

“We didn’t want employees to take it for granted that the discount card was free,” Corey said. “We wanted them to feel like winners. It’s just another way to get them excited and engaged in the benefit.”

She added: “We’ve got a lot of young employees who don’t have a lot of disposable income, so this is a benefit everybody can use.”