Flight Club operator secures £60m funding to expand

09-Apr-2024 - Last updated on 09-Apr-2024 at 08:06 GMT

Taking flight: Red Engine has eight sites set to open in 2024

Red Engine, the operator of the Flight Club and Electric Shuffle brands, has secured £60m of financing to drive the global expansion of its brands.

The new £60m facility comes from Santander, HSBC and Barclays, and follows the recent news Red Engine-owned venues achieved sales of £67m last year, while Red Engine and partner venue sales combined exceeded £100m.

The total Red Engine and partners’ estate currently stands at 25 venues – 17 owner-operated and eight partner-owned by State of Play Hospitality (Flight Club in North America) and Night Owl (Flight Club in Australia).

This portfolio is set to increase to 33 in 2024, as Red Engine and its partners are poised to open a further eight sites this year alone – four owned and four partner-owned.

Three UK openings

Red Engine will open Electric Shuffle Manchester and New York and Flight Club Liverpool and Oxford, while the franchise partners opening pipeline for 2024 consists of Flight Club Philadelphia, Washington, Sydney and Melbourne.

ross shepley-smith and flight club — Ross Shepley-Smith and Flight Club

Red Engine chief financial officer Ross Shepley-Smith said: “For the past nine years, everything we have done has been with our customers in mind.

“Our in-house game developers, our interior and design teams, our venue teams of chefs, bartenders and everything in between, have strived to give people the best experience possible.

“It’s because of this that we’ve built such a loyal customer following and it’s these customers that have made it possible to grow as we have done.”

First site in Shoreditch

He continued: “Our mission has always been to make groups of friends everywhere ridiculously happy, and we couldn’t be more excited to continue that journey with this new facility.”

Red Engine’s concepts Flight Club darts and Electric Shuffle, launched in 2015 and 2019 respectively. Flight Club – which is claimed to be one of the first players in the competitive socialising space – first launched in London’s Shoreditch.

flight club 2 (electric shuffle) — Electric Shuffle

The concept has “reimagined darts for the 21st century, transforming the traditional two-player game of darts into a range of high-energy, fast-paced, multi-player games”.

Following the success of Flight Club, the Red Engine team launched Electric Shuffle – another adaptation of a classic game for modern times – this time focusing on shuffleboard. Both are housed within “beautifully designed bar settings, delivering an impressive food and drink offering”.