AN ESCAPE Room set up by friends in Leamington is on the up and up.
Experimental Escape was opened five years ago by Charlie Little and David Billany and since then the Warwick Street-based attraction has become Google’s top result for fun things to do in Warwickshire.
The escape room was the first to be opened in the town complete with puzzle-solving, logical thinking and teamwork-testing games.
And now the enterprising duo’s success is set for another boost thanks to support from the Project Warwickshire Business Support Scheme delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council.
Charlie said: “We’re pleased and proud to be the number one most fun thing to do in Leamington. When we started out five years ago, we were the only escape rooms in the town, but two more opened two months later.
“Our award-winning escape games are designed and built by us, which means we learn to adapt to our customers’ needs to make the experience the best it can be.”
Visitors to Experimental Escape are transported into a room with a mysterious scenario, where they have only 60 minutes to achieve the objective and escape.
After enjoying a strong Christmas period of trading as customers returned to normal festive period pursuits, following the disruptive impact of the global pandemic, the business is now pushing ahead with plans for the future.
At the forefront of this is Charlie’s participation in Project Warwickshire, which was set up by WCC as part of the CW Business: Start, Grow and Scale programme.
Charlie attended three one-on-one sessions with Chamber Business Advisor Russell Grant.
He explained: “The Project Warwickshire Business Support Scheme has really helped us to develop our marketing strategies and really focus on what we do best and the areas we need to improve on.
“They have given us access to workshops covering a wide range of topics, and also information of available funding for future projects.”
In the coming months, Experimental Escape has targeted the expansion and creation of more games as well developing more games to test the teams’ creative and technical abilities.
Charlie added: “I’d recommend the support to other businesses. It’s like having an external person auditing your business and your approach to promotion. It’s good practice to assess what we’re doing right and wrong and having a mentor who has better knowledge than I do and isn’t biased and will tell you if something isn’t looking good or where you can improve.”
Russell added: “Charlie and the Experimental Escape team are doing a fantastic job building their business. After weathering the pandemic, they are now making great strides and took on board our advice, including a revamp of their website which gives an excellent representation of the experience customers get at their venue.
“They’ve got an excellent offer full of creativity and innovation and it will continue to go from strength to strength. I’m really pleased that we could help.”
