Boom Battle Bar owner on the up as experiential leisure thrives

XP Factory’s chief executive believes his company's strong start to 2023 is evidence of experiential leisure's strength in the face of economic challenges.

Richard Harpham pointed to soaring sales at its Escape Hunt and Boom Battle Bar venues as evidence that the sector is thriving despite inflationary pressures and cost-of-living challenges.

During the six months to June 30, 2023, total revenue was up 130% to £18.7m, driven in the main by the expansion of its Boom Battle Bar adventure games venues. That segment saw revenue up more than 400% to £11.3m, while Escape Hunt revenue grew by 41% to £6.1m.

Both segments saw double-digit like-for-like sales growth delivered in the 26 weeks to July 2. Boom was up 19.6% while Escape Hunt was up 20.4%. At the end of 2022 there were 27 Boom sites and 23 Escape Hunt sites.

Adjusted EBITDA was up 120% to £2.4m, while gross margin was maintained at 62.1%.

Chief executive Harpham said: “We are delighted to have delivered such transformational growth compared to the same period in 2022, driven by the aggressive rollout of Boom Battle Bar.

“The performance in Escape Hunt has been outstanding and we are delighted to see the young Boom business continue to mature with ongoing improvements to its operating metrics.

“Performance since the end of June 2023 has been encouraging with both Boom and Escape Hunt delivering strong like for like growth over the summer months.

“Experiential leisure has displayed robust demand despite the current economic environment and our strategy to drive profitable growth and take market share continues to progress. Whilst mindful of ongoing short-term pressures on consumers and the second half weighting of the industry, we remain optimistic for the performance of both businesses over the short and medium term and expect to report full year numbers in line with market expectations.”