The company has reached a major milestone as the competitive socialising operator targets continued European expansion with ambitious 180,000sq ft dealmaking goal for 2025.
The UK’s largest independent entertainment and leisure operator, the Lane7 Group has confirmed over 120,000sq ft of transactions completed in 2024, as it opened eight new sites this year across the UK and as part of its wider, planned European roll out.
This news comes as Lane7 pins high hopes on further expansion, expecting to open 10 new venues over the next two years and adding a potential 180,000sq ft to its portfolio by the end of 2025 alone. This reflects a 50 per cent year-on-year growth for the UK’s Top Three bowling operator, which is already turning the competitive socialising and multi-player entertainment market on its head.
Lane7’s first European venue opened its doors in October, anchoring the leisure element of Brookfield’s The Playce, Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Meanwhile, two Dublin venues – at Dundrum and Chatham Street – are due to open in January 2025. In the last few months alone, Lane7 has signed three new sites with six further sites in legals, following a major leasing push ahead of MAPIC. In the UK, the brand’s roll out will include two new venues in its ‘hometown’ of Newcastle, where the very first Lane7 opened its doors in 2013, as well as further sites for its sister brands Gutterball and LevelX, the Group’s family-friendly concepts.
Lane7 Founder, Tim Wilks said: “This year, we’ve made a significant investment at MAPIC because we see it as a pivotal moment for our European expansion. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with partners and industry friends, as well as reach out to Europe’s leading investors, asset managers and landlords who are seeking a bold and ambitious operator to anchor retail and mixed-use destinations. We’re very proud to be fiercely independent and this allows us to act with pace and be decisive, creative and take on challenging sites that others might overlook. Whether it’s a former service yard or department store, garage or even a train station, we always bring our signature design and vision.”
