XP Factory runs two leisure brands in the UK: Escape Hunt, which sells escape-room games, and Boom Battle Bar, a bar-and-games chain. Boom was about 70% of revenue, and on 28 September 2026 the company agreed to sell it for up to £11m, leaving a business built around Escape Hunt. The sale followed a year in which Escape Hunt grew while Boom's sales fell, and group profit fell with them.
Escape rooms that earn their keep, and a bar chain that didn't
Escape Hunt runs 27 owner-operated sites, 24 of them in the UK, plus sites in Paris, Brussels and Dubai. About 20 more are franchised abroad. It sells to leisure groups and to companies for team-building, and also offers games played remotely. In FY26 (year to March 2026) it made £15.8m of revenue, with site-level margins of 42% and UK like-for-like sales up 4.6%.
Boom Battle Bar is a social-gaming bar. It had 25 owner-operated sites, 24 in the UK, and made £42.8m of revenue at a 17% site-level margin. Its like-for-like sales fell 8% in FY26, against a 9% fall across competitive socialising. Management said Escape Hunt's modular rooms fit many unit shapes and let it win landlord incentives. 7 Sep 2026 9 Dec 2025 1 Sep 2025
From under £1m to £57m: buying Boom and doubling twice
The chairman said the group grew from under £1m of revenue to almost £60m over nine years. Revenue doubled in 2022 after the group acquired the Boom estate. It nearly doubled again in 2023 to £44.7m, and reached £57.3m over a 15-month period to March 2024, after a change of year-end.
In 2023 the group posted its first positive operating profit, £1.7m. It opened new sites and bought back Boom franchise sites, including Chelmsford, Ealing and Watford. Management called 2023 a year of optimising the estate, and Boom's site margin rose to 17% from 13%. 19 Mar 2024 2 Sep 2024 18 Jan 2024 2 Feb 2026
A £10m credit line and a £90m plan
In October 2024 the group signed a £10m revolving credit facility with Barclays to speed up site openings. On 4 December 2024 it set a target for March 2028: sales of £90m, with a £100m run-rate, and pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA of £13m, at a 15% margin. EBITDA is profit before interest, tax and depreciation. Funding was to come from cash flow and debt of about 1.0x EBITDA.
It also bought back five Boom franchise sites and cut the share premium account to allow future buybacks or dividends. Over this period revenue rose 19% to £57.8m in FY25. Net cash of £0.1m at March 2024 became £4.8m of net debt a year later. The shares drifted from about 14p to 11p over 2024 and early 2025. 9 Oct 2024 4 Dec 2024 17 Feb 2025 25 Mar 2025 1 Sep 2025
Wage costs and a weak bar market hit profit
From April 2025 higher employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage added about £1.5m of labour cost. Boom's customers spent less in a market that was shrinking, and several competitors entered administration. A hot spring also hurt early trading.
On 2 February 2026 the board cut FY26 pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA guidance to £5.0m-£6.0m, below expectations. It also said it would slow new openings. The company reported £5.5m for the year, down from £6.6m. In December 2025 it refinanced Barclays with a three-year £20m HSBC facility.
Management began easing back on openings and costs. It found over £2m of site-level savings and £1m of head-office savings. 2 Feb 2026 9 Dec 2025 12 May 2026 7 Sep 2026
“FY27 is additionally expected to be a year of consolidation, with remaining uncertainty given market conditions and we are moderating accordingly the pace of our new site openings.” 2 Feb 2026
Boom sold to concentrate on Escape Hunt
On 28 September 2026 the group agreed to sell Boom for up to £11m: £5m in cash and up to £6m of earn-out payments. Net debt after completion is about £3m. The company has not said what the buyer is paying relative to Boom's earnings. It has not said whether the March 2028 group target still stands. The new targets cover Escape Hunt only.
Escape Hunt now carries the story: it averages a 42% site margin and a 51% return on capital at mature UK sites. Shareholders approved all AGM resolutions the next day. 28 Sep 2026 29 Sep 2026
What worked and what didn't
Escape Hunt delivered steady returns across sites in different locations. Boom grew fast, but proved far more exposed to weak consumer spending and wage rises. Management cut Boom's costs by renegotiating supplier terms, which held its margin to a 1-point fall. That could not offset falling sales.
The group grew on borrowed money and a bet on rising demand, and the bet did not hold. The 2028 plan was set when like-for-like sales were growing. Within 18 months guidance was cut and expansion slowed. The new chairman was blunt about Boom. 7 Sep 2026 2 Feb 2026 4 Dec 2024
“While the market backdrop helps explain Boom's recent performance, explanation alone is not a solution.” 7 Sep 2026
A new chairman, a retiring finance chief
Richard Harpham was chief executive through at least December 2025. Chairman Richard Rose left after nine years, and James van den Bergh took over on 2 February 2026. His pay includes £65,000 a year in shares and options struck at 12p and 24p. Finance chief Graham Bird retired on 29 March 2026, and Panmure Liberum was appointed broker in April 2026.
Major holders include Canaccord Genuity (16.9%), BGF Investment Management (13.6% since April 2024), Jeremy Attard-Manche (7.9%), Caspar MacDonald-Hall (6.4%) and Stephen Lucas (6.2%). 29 Sep 2025 2 Feb 2026 19 May 2026 9 Dec 2025 29 Apr 2026 5 Sep 2025 30 Sep 2026 16 Apr 2024 3 Feb 2026 16 Jan 2026 19 Mar 2026
A smaller company, with Christmas still to come
For FY26, revenue rose 3% to £59.6m, adjusted operating profit fell to £0.8m from £3.4m, and net debt was £5.9m. Escape Hunt opened Colchester, Wandsworth and Birmingham Cannon Street after year-end, and Cardiff is due in October 2026 as UK site 28. The Wandsworth site took space from an existing Boom.
The shares rose from 11.2p in February 2026 to 20.2p in June, and were 18.5p at end-September. 7 Sep 2026 12 May 2026 28 Sep 2026
Fifty sites by 2031
The company's targets, announced 28 September 2026, are for end-FY27: at least 28 UK Escape Hunt sites, run-rate sales of at least £18.5m, central costs of no more than £4m and run-rate group EBITDA of at least £4m. By March 2031 it targets at least 50 UK owned sites. Longer term it sees room for 100 across the UK and Ireland.
The board says the £1m of head-office savings will take full effect in FY27, and that Christmas trading, still ahead, matters most for the year. December 2025 business bookings at Boom were up 15% on a year earlier, and the board expects the year to match market expectations. The earn-out of up to £6m depends on Boom's performance under its new owner. 28 Sep 2026 7 Sep 2026
Written by AI from XP Factory's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources