Wed 11th Sep 2024 - Exclusive: Topgolf and Puttshack founders to launch new competitive socialising concept Exclusive – Topgolf and Puttshack founders to launch new competitive socialising concept: Steve and Dave Jolliffe, the founders of Topgolf and World Golf Systems, are to launch a new competitive socialising concept called Poolhouse, Propel has learned. The Jolliffe brothers, who also co-founded Puttshack with Adam Breeden, co-founder of Flight Club, AceBounce and All Star Lanes, are understood to have lined up a site in the City of London, for the first site under the new concept. The pair are believed to have lined up a site across the ground and first floor of 90 Liverpool Street. As the name suggests, the new sports-entertainment concept will be based around the cue sports game pool. Propel understands that the Jolliffe brothers have hired Matthew Fleming, formerly of Vagabond Wines, as chief operating officer of the new venture. Fleming recently stepped down as managing director of Vagabond Wines, which was acquired out of administration by Majestic earlier this year, to take up an “exciting new role within the hospitality sector”. Fleming joined Vagabond as its new managing director at the start of 2021. He was formerly head of drinks innovation at Stonegate Group and head of innovation at Be At One. TopGolf was founded in 2000 in Watford, England by the Jolliffe brothers. Two years ago, the company raised $150m in growth capital from BlackRock to expand the concept across the US. The concept currently operates four sites in the UK, circa 90 sites in the US, and sites in Australia, Germany, Mexico, Thailand and the UAE. Since opening its first location in 2018, Puttshack now has four sites in the UK, and is to open its 15th US location in Edina, Minnesota, early next month. It comes as TopGolf reported a 23% increase in revenue in the year to 31 December 2023 to £51,323,824 (2022: £41,885,637), with a pre-tax loss of £6,988,897 (2022: loss of £12,513,173. The company said its UK venues saw a 39% increase in revenue in the year, driven by the first full year of trade at its newest UK venue in Glasgow. Revenue from international franchise partners decreased 16%. The company said: “The management team continues to work with franchise partners to develop a pipeline of further international venues, the decrease from 2022 has been largely due to the timing of equipment sales issued to the franchise venues, this does not affect the bottom line of the business.” A new report has been produced by Propel on the fast-growing experiential leisure sector. 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 180 companies, 3,500 sites and a 35,000-word report. The report was made available yesterday (Tuesday, 10 September) to Premium Club members. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.