£5m funding puts a bounce into GraVity

A trampoline parks business is looking to double in size after landing a £5m investment from an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund through Guinness Asset Management.

Castleford-based GraVity currently has four sites across the country. Following the £5m from the investment management firm, the business is looking to add four more sites.

GraVity, co-founded by Harvey Jenkinson and Michael Harrison in 2014, will also be updating its existing locations.

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Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Mr Jenkinson said: “We’re going to replace and modernise the park in Xscape, Castleford. We’re going to add new attractions.”

Mr Harrison said that when they launched the business there wasn’t much in the way of a comparable offer.

“There’s eight trampoline parks within 15 miles of Xscape now,” he added. “We’re still the most visited trampoline park in Yorkshire. We want to make sure that continues by making it the most fun and staying ahead of the game.”

GraVity will open a new park in Edinburgh and Glasgow over the coming months. It also has plans to open in Xscape in Milton Keynes and Bluewater Shopping Centre.

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Alongside its park at Xscape in Castleford, which acts as its head office, the firm also has one in Hull and there are plans to add another park in the region in 2018. The other existing sites are in Norwich and Maidstone.

The business is looking to add other elements to its attractions.

“We’re going to add clip and climb walls to Norwich,” says Mr Jenkinson. “We’re going to use some of the unutilised space there. It’s another attraction for the scheme.”

Mr Harrison added: “Our ethos has always been fitness that’s fun for all ages. Adding a climbing element that everyone can do is just something else we can do and keep us ahead of the game.”

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Both entrepreneurs have a background in the leisure industry. Mr Jenkinson spent time sailing boats in the Caribbean for a living while Mr Harrison says he has spent his whole life in the leisure and tourism industry.

“I’ve been in the leisure industry my whole life in Bridlington,” says Mr Harrison.

“If you can make it there you can make it anywhere – it’s very cold and a very short season. So it was a good grounding for our business and our way of life and work.”

The duo “built everything” themselves at their first trampoline park because they had a “very limited budget”, said Mr Jenkinson.

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Mr Harrison added: “We didn’t have much choice. We did a full strip out. I went to China to find the kit and Harvey and I set out to work on building everything.”

Mr Jenkinson said that there is no better way of knowing a business than by creating it yourself.

GraVity attributes its rapid growth to a love of trampolining amongst people. Mr Jenkinson said: “Nearly every back garden in the country with a family has a trampoline so I think it’s a natural progression from that.”

Families being health conscious is also playing a part in the popularity of trampolining.

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“The mindset of a modern family is to be health conscious where possible,” Mr Jenkinson said. “It allows children and families to do something that is fun and half the times not even realise that they are burning calories and sweating.”

Attracting the young and old

The spectrum of people who trampoline is “huge”, says Michael Harrison.

He said: “The great thing about GraVity trampoline parks is that your size, ability and age don’t matter.

“If you can stand, you can bounce. If you’re 18-months-old come and have a go. If you’re a 90-year-old come and have a go.

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“We’ve had four generations of a family on the park at once. It’s good to see.”

GraVity employs 220 people across the business with 120 of them based in Yorkshire.

Both Mr Harrison and Harvey Jenkinson are proud of their Yorkshire roots. “We’re Yorkshire lads through and through,” said Mr Harrison.