Tenpin Sheffield: New bowling alley with laser tag offering to open in ex-Argos store

The firm, which has previously said the multi-storey site in Sheffield will also include laser tag, escape rooms, karaoke, a restaurant and a bar, said the firm was looking forward “to adding our city centre development in Sheffield by the end of the year”. It revealed the Sheffield site will be “a multi-storey 20-lane centre”.

The 40,000 sq ft building previously home to Argos has been empty since 2021 and sits opposite the National Videogame Museum.

The move is part of wider expansion plans for the business which have seen three other centres open already this year in Crewe, Milton Keynes and Dundee.

A further four new sites are expected to open around the country in 2024, with the locations yet to be disclosed.

A spokesperson said a “significant sum” is being invested into the creation of the new Sheffield site.

They added: "It will bring a good number of jobs to Sheffield, approximately 50 people.

“Sheffield is a city that Ten has wanted to operate in for a long time and now we have the perfect site in Angel Street which has excellent transport links and is close to Hallam University.”

Group adjusted profit before tax for the first half of this year stood at £15.8m, narrowly above the £15.7m recorded in the same period in 2022.

The results stated that the position would have been stronger but in the first half of last year the business received £1m in additional sales as a result of reduced Government rates on VAT for hospitality businesses as well as £1m of business rates relief.

It said: “Absent these one-off items, the comparable PBT for H1 22 would have been £13.7m and this year’s £15.8m represents +15.3 per cent growth against that.”

The results said: “Our model is simple: the best quality bowling experience anywhere in the UK at the best value for money, supplemented by a wide variety of additional leisure activities.

"It is a winning formula that continues to deliver results.”

Year to date like-for-like sales to September 10 are up by almost five per cent, at the upper range of the company’s expectations for the period.

Graham Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer, said he was delighted with the company’s current performance as expansion plans continue to take shape.

“We have delivered like-for-like sales growth in every reporting period since we reopened in May 2021 and have converted that into growing profitability,” he said.

"The fact that we can continue to deliver these results is testament to the quality of our product offering and the hard work of our teams throughout the UK.

"Our business continues to increase in scale and is in better shape than ever.

"We had already achieved 2019’s full year sales by August with acceleration of like-for-like sales over the summer and our profit for the first half of this year is greater than our total 2019 full year profit.

"We will continue to focus on delivering value for money for our customers, with best-in-class bowling and entertainment across each of our 51 bowling centres.”

The company has reduced the cost of a game of bowling compared to last year in an effort to adjust to cost-of-living pressures on customers, its results added.​

It said: “We have maintained our strategy of offering the best value bowling pricing in the UK. Average realised price for a game of bowling in H1 23 was £4.90, a reduction of (5.5 per cent) from the £5.19 it was last year.

"This reduction is a function of a shift from customers into our deals which include packaged discounted bowling and food combinations.

"It shows that our customers are becoming more deal conscious in the challenging economic environment, but with footfall growth of +4.4 per cent, it also shows that this strategy continues to resonate with our customers and provide sanctuary in an inflationary leisure landscape.”