Roxy Leisure seeks nationwide expansion after £7.5m investment

09-Jan-2020 - Last updated on 09-Jan-2020 at 11:03 GMT

Keeping up with the Joneses: Roxy Leisure founders Matt and Ben Jones have secured £7.5m from Foresight

The operator behind the Roxy Ball Room and Roxy Lanes concepts has secured £7.5m worth of investment from infrastructure and private equity investment firm Foresight Group.

Founded in 2013 by Leeds-based Matt and Ben Jones, Roxy Leisure currently operates eight venues under its Roxy Ball Room and Roxy Lanes brands – with a ninth, Roxy Ball Room Birmingham in Digbeth, earmarked for early 2020.

Since opening its first venue in Leeds, Roxy Leisure has unveiled further venues across Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Leeds offering pool tables, table tennis, bowling, shuffleboard, mini-golf, arcade gaming and karaoke.

The £7.5m investment from private equity firm Foresight will be used to support the operator’s expansion, with sites in Manchester and Nottingham in the pipeline in addition to its new Birmingham venue.

Poised to accelerate growth

“Roxy demonstrates some of the most attractive leisure sector performance metrics we have seen and the growth of the business in recent years has been impressive,” Rob Jones, investment manager at Foresight, said.

“The company is well-positioned to accelerate its growth with the additional support and guidance that Foresight will bring.

“Matt and Ben have built a successful business with a good corporate culture and we look forward to working with them to take Roxy through the next stage of its growth.”

Matt and Ben Jones added: “It has been a pleasure working with Foresight's experienced investment team who understood our business quickly and demonstrated a strong appetite to support our plans.

“Their pragmatic approach and experience in working with businesses and management teams in our sector made them stand out as the right investor for us.”