Jennifer and Stephen discuss planning permission for a bowling alley, US expansion for a bed manufacturer and the acquisition of a Scottish hotel.
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00:00Planning permission of a bowling alley, US expansion for a bed manufacturer and the
00:05acquisition of a Scottish hotel, featuring today's business briefing.
00:10Good morning Joan, what have you seen in the news today?
00:16Good morning Steve-o.
00:17Well starting off today in Northern Ireland, full planning permission has been granted
00:21to Lotus Property for a 23,000 square foot, 21 lane bowling alley and family entertainment
00:27centre at the Boulevard in Banbridge. The decision will see Hollywood Bowl open its second location
00:33in Northern Ireland in early 2026, with work due to start on the site straight away. The
00:39permission initiates a £9 million transformation of the Western part of the scheme, with landlord
00:44investment to create a food and entertainment quarter spanning 60,000 square foot.
00:48That sounds good. Well sticking with the leisure industry, we've got the news that Spinners
00:54has raised £4 million from Gresham House Ventures to launch a series of new venues. The company's
01:00sites offer a range of bowling, crazy golf, darts, shuffleboard, virtual clay pigeon shooting,
01:07alongside food and drink as you'd expect. It opened its first site in Reading in 2021,
01:12it's gone on to expand to sites in Plymouth and Sully Hole. With the new funding it now plans to
01:18launch several new sites across the UK over the next few years. They recently appointed Cushman
01:24and Wakefield as a property agent to help it find new sites. Spinners has also recently invested
01:30in its activities across its venues, that includes the new clay pigeon shooting simulator and there are
01:35plans for a new golf game at future locations. Gresham House said that Spinners has huge potential
01:42for continued expansion, so it's definitely a company to keep an eye on there. Brilliant. Great. Well,
01:47some manufacturing news then. This spring, which is the iconic British manufacturer of handcrafted
01:53luxury mattresses, is accelerating expansion of its US retail presence this year. So the company will
01:59launch 17 new sites across the country as it celebrates rare growth success in the US despite
02:05recent tariff changes. As part of its strategic growth plan, the brand will open 60 solar stores
02:11and these will be complemented by a number of shop and shop locations in partnership with leading
02:16retailers. This spring says it plans to grow by at least 50% in 2025. Oh, brilliant news. Yeah.
02:23Well, a last story for us today. We've got the news that Caledonian Leisure has acquired a historic
02:27hotel in the Scottish town of Calendare, which is known as the gateway to the Highlands. I was actually
02:32up there myself, as you're well aware, a couple of weeks ago. So yeah, really beautiful part of the world,
02:37I can attest to that. Yeah. Well, the company has acquired the 63 bedroom Dreadnought Hotel,
02:42which is set to be rebranded as the Caledonian Thistle Hotel following the purchase. Caledonian also
02:47plans a significant investment programme to improve both the outside and inside of the hotel. That's
02:53going to include upgraded bedrooms and improvements to the communal and entertainment facilities. The 16 bar
03:01at the hotel is going to remain open to the general public and the restaurant there will be rebranded as
03:05the Dreadnought restaurant in honour of the previous name. It's actually a part of a series of
03:10investments for Caledonian Leisure. The company also recently invested 2.4 million in 10 new coaches
03:16to add to its fleet, which now stands at 85 vehicles. So yeah, an exciting time for that business.
03:21Brilliant. Well, if you'd like to hear more on that story and the other stories that we covered today,
03:26you can head on over to insidermedia.com where you can also hear about our upcoming events
03:30and sign up to our newsletters. Thank you.