Five years after two friends opened Leamington Spa’s first escape room experience, plans are now afoot to develop upon its puzzle-solving, logical thinking and teamwork-testing games after gaining crucial support from the Project Warwickshire Business Support Scheme delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council.
"We're pleased and proud to be the number one most fun thing to do in Leamington Spa," said Experimental Escape general manager Charlie Little.
"When we started out five years ago, we were the only escape rooms in the town, but two more opened two months later.
"Our award-winning escape games are designed and built by us, which means we learn to adapt to our customers’ needs to make the experience the best it can be."
Visitors to Experimental Escape are transported into a room with a mysterious scenario, where they have only 60 minutes to achieve the objective and escape.
After enjoying a strong Christmas period of trading as customers returned to normal festive period pursuits, following the disruptive impact of the global pandemic, the business is now pushing ahead with plans for the future.
At the forefront of this is Charlie’s participation in Project Warwickshire, which was set up by Warwickshire County Council as part of the CW Business: Start, Grow and Scale programme, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and has been delivered by the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.
He attended three one-on-one sessions with Chamber Business Advisor Russell Grant.
“The Project Warwickshire Business Support Scheme has really helped us to develop our marketing strategies and really focus on what we do best and the areas we need to improve on," said Charlie.
“They have given us access to workshops covering a wide range of topics, and also information of available funding for future projects.”
In the coming months, Experimental Escape has targeted the expansion and creation of more games as well developing more games to test the teams’ creative and technical abilities.
"I'd recommend the support to other businesses," Charlie added. "It’s like having an external person auditing your business and your approach to promotion. It’s good practice to assess what we’re doing right and wrong and having a mentor who has better knowledge than I do and isn’t biased and will tell you if something isn’t looking good or where you can improve.”
Russell added: “Charlie and the Experimental Escape team are doing a fantastic job building their business. After weathering the pandemic, they are now making great strides and took on board our advice, including a revamp of their website which gives an excellent representation of the experience customers get at their venue.
“They’ve got an excellent offer for full of creativity and innovation and it will continue to go from strength to strength. I’m really pleased that we could help.”
Councillor Martin Watson, Portfolio Holder for Economy & Place for Warwickshire County Council, said: "Experimental Escape is a great success story and a very welcome dimension to our incredibly vibrant and creative leisure sector in Warwickshire. I am delighted that the expert support from Project Warwickshire has enabled the business to think clearly about the big picture and put together a solid strategy for further growth."
Pictured: Charlie Little (left) with Russell Grant of Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce
About Project Warwickshire
Project Warwickshire is receiving up to £3.6 million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.
