Exclusive – Clays subject to overseas interest as lfl sales sitting at over 20%: Tom Snellock, founder of Clays, the Imbiba-backed, indoor interactive clay shooting experience concept, has told Propel business has seen “growth in all demographics” over the past seven months, and that it was “getting a lot more interest about rolling out overseas”. Snellock was talking after the business secured £6m of new investment to aid its further expansion and lined up its first regional site, in Birmingham. The business launched in London's Moorgate in November 2021 and opened a second site the next year, in Canary Wharf's West India Quay, at the end of 2022. The business raised £3m of funding from family and friends to launch the concept. At the end of 2022, it secured new investment from serial sector investor Imbiba to aid its further growth. It has now completed a £6m fundraise, led by French leisure and entertainment group Otium Leisure. This November, it will open the doors to its third venue, in Birmingham's Piccadilly Arcade. On trading, Snellock told Propel: “It’s really good, surprisingly. We have seen growth in all demographics within the last seven months (since January), and we are sitting at over 20% like-for-like growth across the sites.” Snellock previously told Propel that the company was looking at further expansion in London and overseas, and it had signed the IP on its hardware and game for the US, Canada, Europe, China, Japan and Australia. On the back of the new fundraise, he said: “We are always keeping our eye on cities like Manchester and Dublin and getting a lot more interest about rolling out overseas. So, we are weighing up whether we licence our tech (more patents are being filed each year to protect our proprietary tech) franchise, own and operate or do a joint venture. It feels like a really positive time for us right now.” Earlier this year, Propel revealed that Clays was eyeing an opening in London's Soho and had applied to open on the former Park Row site in Brewer Street. A new report produced by Propel on the fast-growing experiential leisure sector is now available to purchase. The report profiles the current shape of the experiential leisure market – including brands, estate size, trading type and geographical location and future trends. It provides a detailed list of UK experiential leisure companies including key staff and Companies House information. The report includes more than 190 companies, 3,500 sites and a 35,000-word report. Existing Premium Club members can receive the report for £395 plus VAT. The report will be made available for free to existing Premium members on Tuesday, 10 September at 9am. Email: kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to order a copy.

Wingstop looking to sell its UK business: Wingstop UK, which is being rolled out here by Lemon Pepper Holdings, is looking to sell its UK business, Sky News has reported. The company, which is majority-owned by a trio of entrepreneurs who brought it to Britain in 2018, has hired Goldman Sachs to find new owners, the report said. City sources said the sale had been initiated in response to unsolicited expressions of interest from potential buyers. Goldman is understood to have begun issuing information about Wingstop UK to third parties in the last couple of weeks, although the likely valuation of the business is unclear at the moment. The sale is being launched as Wingstop prepares to open its 50th outlet in the UK, having last month unveiled number 49 at Milton Keynes’ Midusmmer Place shopping centre. It is aiming to have 57 sites open by the end of the year and is believed to have the potential for up 500 sites here. Wingstop has also become one of the industry's biggest employers in the UK, with a workforce of about 2,200 people, and was last month named one of the fastest-growing business in the UK for the second year in a row. It came 38th in the Sunday Times Hundred 2024 – the newspaper’s guide to the fastest-growing private companies in Britain – and was again the fastest-growing restaurant operator. Wingstop’s first UK site opened at Cambridge Circus in central London in 2018 after Tom Grogan, Saul Lewin, and Herman Sahota persuaded the brand's American owner to sign a deal with them, despite their lack of restaurant industry experience. Wingstop’s US-headquartered business is listed in New York and has a market capitalisation of close to $11bn (£8.6bn). Its shares have more than doubled in the past year. The American company also owns 20% of the UK operation, having acquired it in 2021. Wingstop’s British operation is also partly owned by an unidentified outside investor. A spokesman for Wingstop UK declined to comment.