Having had their sights set on being the leading experiential leisure operator around the world, Escape Hunt have taken a significant step forward, with the acquisition of Boom: Battle Bar.
This is so exciting! What an amazing sector to be working in, where there is incredible growth and expansion happening in the UK and across the globe.
Escape Hunt are a leading escape rooms company with sites in 12 countries. There are 15 Escape Hunt venues in the UK including London, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh. Each venue hosts a range of incredible, themed rooms. The offering differs at each venue but popular choices include the BBC Doctor Who live escape game, Our Finest Hour (MI6 spy adventure), The Fourth Samurai and Alice in Puzzleland … plus many more.
However, they don’t just do escape rooms. Escape Hunt also offer outdoor games as well as mysteries you can solve at home. Outdoor games combine augmented reality and geolocation technology to create adventures across your local area. Operation Mindfall will have you leading a team of undercover secret agents in a mission to stop the release of a deadly virus (sounds terrifyingly familiar!). Whilst, Magic Portal, sees an array of magical creatures escape into your city and it’s up to you to find the crystals needed to reseal the broken magic portal and return the mystical terrors back to their own world. Can you save humanity?
Boom: Battle Bar is an entirely different entity. Cocktails, street food and more games than you’d ever think possible. The range of games varies across sites however frequent flyers include: Augmented Reality Darts, Shuffleboard, Axe Throwing, Crazier Golf, Beer Pong, Ping Pong, arcades and American Pool.
Boom: Battle Bar opened their first UK site in Norwich at the end of 2020. Since then, they have opened sites in Cardiff (November 2020), Liverpool (May 2021), Lakeside (July 2021), Eastbourne (August 2021), and Swindon (October 2021). Then there are a further 21 sites in the pipeline including Wandsworth and the O2 London which will be opening in the next month (hopefully).
Escape Hunt have purchased Boom: Battle Bar for £17.38m. The initial payment of £9.88m will be paid in cash with the rest will be paid through shares.
The companies will be brought together under the new company name: XP Factory Plc.
Richard Harpham, CEO of Escape Hunt said, “We are incredibly excited to be acquiring Boom Battle Bars, which is highly complementary to our existing Escape Hunt business. The acquisition allows us to capitalise on the growth in experiential leisure and competitive socialising, and significantly improves our ability to access the best property locations in a soft commercial property environment.”
