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Level X Glasgow

Levelling up family entertainment at Level X

With the first location already entertaining guests in Glasgow, the firm plans to open four more venues in the next 18 months

Level X, a new concept in family entertainment, has opened in Glasgow, offering family-friendly futuristic and immersive attractions. Founder Tim Wilks has plans to open at least four more locations across the UK in the next 18 months, including a 65,000-square-foot site in Middlesbrough.

Tim Wilks Level X

“We have never massively overcomplicated things, and never will,” Wilks tells blooloop. “I had been self-employed for a while. I started out with Lane7.”

Land7, a boutique bowling brand, launched its first venue in Newcastle in 2013:

“It came from that good old classic: just looking for a potential new business,” he says:

“One Google search led to another, and then another. I started in a completely different industry; four nights later I was researching the bowling industry. We went to family centres, and went to All Star Lanes in London, and felt we could do it. All Star Lanes is an excellent business, but we just felt it could be done differently, and better. We grew Lane7, which is a premium city centre model; young professionals are the target market. We were turning down really good sites in what we consider to be more family locations.”

Level X delivers a new twist

This was a turning point:

“We picked up a bowling alley that had gone bust in late 2019 and used that as a bit of a test site. It needed to make money, obviously. We tried a few bits and pieces, learned the family model, and Level X was the result: a big FEC.”

The differentiator is that Level X is heavily tech-led and that all the different experiences have their own brands:

“It’s got a lot more interest for the customer on the eye.”

Glasgow Level X

Detailing the gaming, he explains:

“Some of it is standard stuff that we’re bringing a twist to, which is very much the market at the moment. We are JV-ing with companies on certain predominantly tech-led things, as we don’t have that knowledge in-house, so we have a couple of JVs for new products to market, and we’re looking at a couple of licenses for really good things we found on the other side of the globe.

“The key is that we’re looking for the best things that families can do together. We don’t want to be like most trampoline parks, where the kids are on the trampoline beds, with mum and dad watching. We want families to play together. We’re aiming this at 10 kids who are 10 and up. We feel that’s when kids start to get the dexterity to be able to golf, and the strength to be able to bowl properly.”

A gap in the market

Finding activities families will want to do together can be a challenge, he acknowledges:

“I’m not saying we’re going to crack this in one go, because it’s like the whole holiday piece. When your kids are 10 or 12, they’ll come on holiday with you. When they’re 16, they don’t want to come. Then, when they’re 22 and you’re paying for it, they want to come with you again. There’s a gap where they want nothing to do with you.”

“Level X is aiming at that gap to an extent. We have to be realistic. 10 – 12 is the age where the superb kids’ play or trampoline parks are losing the bulk of their clientele. They then just drift until adult market companies like Lane7 pick them up again at 18. The family market is just left.

“It’s a good market and people have had good businesses in it, but I feel that there’s a real opportunity for a better offer that has better design credentials, better fit-out credentials, and much more in-depth thought about how we can take the customer journey.”

Expectations are changing

He explains how he pitches this to landlords:

“The example I use is that if you look at my wife and me, we’ve worked and travelled all over the world. Tomorrow, I’ll be in London for work. Every business in London that can sell me food and drink goes, ‘That guy’s doing okay. He’s got a few quid in his pocket. We are going to do everything we can to impress him.’ From a fit-out point of view, everything from how much they spend on interior design through the light bulbs to the food on offer and how that cocktail is produced and served over the counter is considered.

“Then I walk down the street holding the hand of my child, who has no money, but I’ve got the money in my pockets. And everyone who’s looking at the child, that middle industry aiming at the family or children’s market, instead of doing all that hard work in terms of research, fit-out and so on, simply makes it bright and basic to attract kids, and that’s it. The mum and dad sit on really poor plastic chairs watching the kids do X, Y, and Z.”

Level X arcade games Glasgow

This, he feels, is an unsustainable model:

“The problem you’ve got is that there’s a new generation of mums and dads in their mid-forties who, over the last 20 years, have had a brilliant time as the UK leisure and hospitality industries have boomed in places like London and Manchester. There have been fantastic opportunities. We’ve been to secret cinema; we’ve eaten in fantastic pop-up restaurants. As parents, we want to be similarly impressed when we take the kids out.

“That is the gap Level X is trying to fill in the market.”

Appealing to a wide range of guests at Level X

Both children and adults need to be impressed. The design fit-out needs to be as meticulous and well thought-out as a venue to attract adults:

“You just need to bring it back a couple of levels so it’s comfortable for families to be in,” Wicks says:

“Design integrity is what we’re talking about.”

Kids can’t be patronised, he points out:

“They have phones. There used to be a nightclub called Legends in Newcastle, and it was known by everyone that you had to be in the bar, because at midnight a wall would go back, to reveal a huge nightclub pumping away. It was brilliant. When this wall went back in the late nineties, you had to go there to see it. Now, you just go on Instagram, or Google the best nightclubs in the world. Your expectations are set to the highest standard, though you may never have been anywhere.

“The family market needs to raise the bar because impressing kids is tough.”

Level X Glasgow

This, he contends, is what differentiates Level X, which opened in a former Hamleys retail space in Glasgow’s St. Enoch Centre.

“We spent a lot on the look of Glasgow, and it looks fantastic. We’ve got a huge amount of tech, which is what we’re still refining.”

The experience features ‘load and play’ RFID wristband technology that gives guests unlimited access to the venue’s gaming offerings, as well as the ability to tap and pay for food and drinks. This is powered by Konnect, an all-in-one attractions management platform by Connect&GO, a leader in guest experience engineering and wearable RFID technology for events and attractions,

UV bowling at the Glasgow venue

“There are kiosks where you can scan your QR code, and book different experiences for those in your party. When you go up to bowl, you scan the wristband. There is self-check-in at airports; Macdonalds and Screwfix now have RFID terminals – that bridge has been crossed mentally for the wider public. They understand when they see a kiosk what to do. We’re just embracing where the world is going.”

Gaming zones include ‘Alt Verse’, a virtual reality (VR) zone with games, VR headsets and VR pods. The bowling attraction ‘Gutterball’ features graffiti art and bespoke bowling balls. ‘Level Up’, a group of new and nostalgic games, includes giant Hungry Hungry Hippos. ‘Big Putts’ is an indoor mini-golf course with score-keeping technology in the balls.

COVID challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic was, as for all businesses, challenging. He comments:

“We weathered it unbelievably well, in one sense, and badly in another. We had a bit of standard bank debt, and the bank was… OK, I would say, at best, in terms of helping us. We had a CBILS loan; after that, we were pretty much on our own.”

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) was part of a series of government measures to support small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs.)

Altverse VR

“I have to say that landlords got a bad rap in the media,” he adds. “All but one of our landlords were fantastic. We struck some fair deals and they worked positively with us.”

In fact, the business emerged from the pandemic as a bigger entity:

“We actually had four sites handed over to us in lockdown. We decided to try and fit them out as best we could on the budget we had. It was a big risk. It paid off, but I wouldn’t want to go through it again.”

Consumers are feeling the pinch

Having survived COVID, the cost-of-living crisis will now need to be navigated:

“I think you’d have to be naive or daft not to be daunted by it,” he comments:

“While we do partner with local businesses to offer food in our outlets, food isn’t a core part of the business, so we’re not too exposed hugely to the rising cost of ingredients. However, we’re huge power consumers – no one is exempt from the running costs, and, ultimately, we are a discretionary spend. History has shown, in an environment like this, the strongest and best offers generally survive.”

UV bowling

This, he reiterates, will come down to elements such as design integrity, and customer care:

“When discretionary spend is reduced, that choice becomes a little bit harder: ‘Shall we go, shall we not?’ We need to make sure that we make that easier by giving them great memories and brilliant service, so they say, ‘No, I really enjoyed it. Let’s go back there, and we’ll trim our costs somewhere else.’”

Level X and competitive socialising

He expands on this:

“We have been doing ‘competitive socialising’ for 10 years. I hate that as a description – when the finance guys in London figured out we existed as an industry, the suits needed a name. We sell fun, effectively. We’ve got a lot of new things coming to market, and that’s great. It’s becoming a lot more competitive, and that’s fine.”

However:

“There is a big problem for me in the market in that if you’re an all-day restaurant and you do breakfast, lunch, and dinner, there are 365 days in a year, and you’ve got over a thousand opportunities to sell me your product because I need to eat to live.”

“If we get a customer back 1.5 times a year or two times a year, we have two opportunities to put offers together. If we’re putting bowling next to golf, next to VR, landlords see that as three businesses. It’s not. It’s one. One customer will not go to all three. They will choose to do bowling this month, and next month they’ll do golf. It’s not an essential to live, like food.

“The market is great, and it is going to evolve over the next decade. There are going to be lots of things we haven’t even thought of that we are going to do. It’s going to be brilliant – but I’m very cautious about where we land, about what that product mix is around us. These businesses aren’t essential. Society doesn’t need them in the way that it needs bars and restaurants.”

New pricing strategies

Dynamic pricing is something that he envisages will become the norm.

“Uber has opened a Pandora’s box; there’s no putting the lid back on it. People, especially younger people, are very happy with the principle of paying X for a cab at 3 pm when it’s quiet and paying Xx4 at 2 am when it’s in high demand.

“People accept that, and it will become accepted that this is a way to do business. When the tech comes to market, I think a lot of businesses will consider dynamic pricing.”

He has mixed feelings about this:

“From a business point of view, it gives us a lot of control. When we’re very popular, we can make the most money; when we’re not, the price can be lowered. Business hat on, true dynamic pricing, like an Uber model, is fabulous.

From another perspective, however:

“It’s slightly sad that this is where we’re going. It just means that those with the most disposable income get to do what they want. It makes not just our industry, but the whole of society, very unfair, and I think we have to be careful where we land.”

Expanding Level X

Turning to the expansion strategy, he says:

“Now the Glasgow location is open, we are doing a 67,000 square footer in Middlesboro. It will just miss Christmas, which makes me cry in my tea, but we just can’t get there any quicker. That will open very early next year. We’ve got another Level X in legals, which will be trading by probably early q3. Then  I think we’re just going to take a small moment. There are some good opportunities in the market, and we’re looking at what we do with Level X.”

A franchise model is a strong possibility.

“I think that it’s very franchisable,” he comments. “That’s possibly the best route. We can offer a slight blend.”

Currently, there are 11 different gaining offers that can be put into a site, a number that will rise to fifteen by the end of next year:

“If someone came along wanting a franchise, we would do a research report and say, ‘We think it needs to be laid out like this, or have this much game provision – it needs this, this, and this.’

“If they wanted to create a different offer, they could just pick the units off the shelf – if they want to golf, they can take I Like Big Putts; if they want bowling, they can take the Gutterball; if they want our football concept they can take Tiki Taka. It gives a franchisee an element of control, which isn’t really a thing in that market. That element of having a little bit of say in how you set that site up is something unique for franchising.”

All images kind courtesy of Level X

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Lalla Merlin

Lalla Merlin

Lead features writer Lalla studied English at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University, and Law with the Open University. A writer, film-maker, and aspiring lawyer, she lives in rural Devon with an assortment of badly behaved animals, including a friendly wolf

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