David Lloyd is returning to the leisure industry with a multi-activity concept - David Lloyd’s Adventure Parks.
Lloyd is planning to open twelve venues by 2021, with business partners Holmes Investment Properties, as he aims to tap into the £4bn ($4.91bn; €4.69bn) UK entertainment and leisure sector.
Each park is expected to cost, on average, £4-5m (US$4.9m-US$6.4m; €4.7m-€5.9m) to set up.
Eleven sites near cities and large towns with good transport links are under review and planning permission is being sought for them. The first park is expected to open by the end of 2017.
The sites will be three acres, offering zip wires, soft play, trampolining and climbing walls as well as restaurants.
Lloyd has a 20-year contract with Holmes Investment Properties, which will fund and build the activity centres.
Lloyd has built two multi-million-pound businesses from scratch - David Lloyd Leisure, founded in 1982, and along with his son, Scott Lloyd, Next Generation Clubs, set up in 1996.
In 2013, TDR Capital purchased the combined group of 94 clubs for more than £700m (US$859m; €822m) to create David Lloyd Clubs.
Lloyd, executive chairman and majority shareholder in David Lloyd’s Adventure Parks said: “I built some of the first commercial leisure venues in the UK and they were also some of the largest, most profitable and most popular centres in the country.
“As the market evolves, we are bringing together rare to find, but easy to love new activities from climbing walls to zip wires and the biggest collection of trampolines in one place. I’ve got thirty-four years’ experience in the sector, and we will be using everything that we have learnt to make our new adventure parks the best activity centres in the country.”
Martin Helme, Holmes Investment Properties chief executive officer, said: “Mr David Lloyd is the most successful leisure entrepreneur in Europe, and he now wants to concentrate on building an exciting new business that people will flock to. The UK market continues to expand by about 150 venues per annum and ‘David Lloyd’s Adventure Parks’ will be part of this growth. Holmes Investment Properties are property experts and it makes sense to leave the funding and building to us. We are at the start of a fantastic 20-year adventure.”
