British Bouldering Chain Secures Significant Investment
It was recently announced by The Climbing Hangar that Verlinvest has purchased a majority stake in the business which has been valued at more than £20million.
This significant injection of capital into the business will allow The Climbing Hangar to massively expand it's footprint with new sites, business acquisitions and potentially taking the business international.
The Climbing Hangar was established in 2011 in Liverpool by Ged MacDomhnaill and had already grown to 5 sites by mid-2021 through previous investment (the first of its kind in the British climbing industry) of £10million from asset manager Mercia and their Northern Venture Capital Trust.
Now, in 2024, The Climbing Hangar has swelled to 9 sites across England and Wales and this groundbreaking injection of funds, and expertise, from Verlinvest will allow the business to continue its march to the top of the industry. Providing the Hangar keeps up its focus on buying premium holds, appropriately remunerating staff for their hard work, and continually improving their marketing presence they will reap the benefit that this development brings.
Ged MacDomhnaill, CEO and Founder of The Climbing Hangar, was quoted on the Verlinvest site: “I am very proud of The Climbing Hangar’s achievements over the last few years and am excited to welcome Verlinvest as a partner as we look to accelerate the growth of the business. With its consumer experience and understanding of building communities and brands, Verlinvest is the perfect partner to help us continue to widen climbing’s appeal and enrich the sport in doing so. We look forward to inspiring more people and continuing to professionalise the delivery of the sport through data and new technologies, which this new partnership will enable.”
Verlinvest describes itself as a global, family-backed evergreen investment company investing tickets up to €200m per investment. It identifies inflection points in consumer behaviour and partners with the businesses that are driving consumer revolutions forward whilst having a positive impact on people and the planet. Established in 1995, with offices in Brussels, London, New York, Mumbai and Singapore, Verlinvest focuses on the FMCG, health, consumer technology and lifestyle categories, investing across three strategies: Platform, Growth and Venture. Its portfolio includes Oatly, Tony’s Chocolonely, K1 Speed, Insomnia Cookies, Vita Coco and Mutti, amongst others.
It will be interesting to see how The Hangar capitalises on the current industry trend of incorporating ‘health and wellness’ into their existing, and future, climbing gym offerings. Gyms have been installing, in some cases at the expense of total climbing surface, spa facilities - plunge pools, saunas, steam rooms and therapy suites - and adding these as premium add-ons to memberships, the extra facilities also encourage longer, or more frequent, stays in the gym. This is already on top of climbers making use of co-working and cafe spaces; if a customer can comfortably spend several hours within the facility they are likely to spend greater amounts with the business in supplementary sales which is obviously a great benefit to the business overall.
This news will act as an excellent side-by-side comparison of French climbing chain Climbing District, which finalised a €10million funding round in February with the aspiration of expanding their reach into metropolitan areas both internally, and the UK (London) and Italy (Milan) either through acquisition and upgrading or opening new sites.
The tail end of the 2020s offer an exciting vision for commercial climbing across Europe. How will the market look by the time LA2028 comes around? We will be here to keep you informed!
