Novelty bar activities like axe throwing, mini golf and escape rooms are more popular than ever among Brits heading towards the end-of-year season, according to bar chain XP Factory.
The company said it has “record advance bookings” between now and the end of 2024, after revenue more than doubled in the 15 months to March 31 to £57.3 million.
XP Factory runs two brands of so-called experiential entertainment, Boom Battle Bar and Escape Hunt.
The first offers activities like shuffleboard, beer pong, axe throwing, “crazier” golf and karaoke, while the second offers themed escape rooms.
The company charges £50 for one half-hour session of axe throwing for six people at its Oxford Street location, while its crazy golf activity is £10 per person.
Richard Harpham, chief executive of XP Factory, said it was an “exceptional period of growth”.
“Our focus on incremental improvements alongside ongoing expansion in the estate has helped deliver market leading returns on investment in both our brands and strong operating cash generation.
“Since the period-end, we have continued to see positive like-for-like growth and performances well ahead of the industry as a whole.
“With record advance bookings for the busy end of year season and improving consumer sentiment, the board’s expectations for the full year are unchanged and we continue to view the prospects for the business with optimism.”
Three new so-called Boom sites opened last year in Dubai, Canterbury and Southend.
Operating profit was £1.9 million, which came in £7 million ahead of 2022, while it increased its cash pile to £3.9 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel