By collaborating with local food vendors, Lane7 provides an innovative approach to boutique bowling
Over ten years ago, Lane7, the third largest bowling operator in the UK, was established by Tim Wilks, Founder and Director. Still entirely privately owned to this day, the company’s boutique bowling alley, entertainment, and bar venues can be found in numerous locations across the UK, including Aberdeen, Bath, Birmingham (The Bullring and The Cube), Bristol, Durham, Edinburgh, Leicester, London (Victoria), Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield.
“Chiefly specializing in bowling alleys in city centers, Lane7 is our biggest brand, catering to young professionals, corporate night outs and big occasions,” begins Tim, as he introduces the company in more detail. “Within Lane7, we run two other brands. The first is Gutter Ball, which is a challenger brand to traditional bowling alleys, and then we have Level X, a multi-activity family entertainment center (FEC) venue. With about 50,000 square feet of space, Level X offers all sorts of activities, ranging from immersive gaming and bowling to indoor go-karting. We are actively growing each of these three brands at the moment.” 
Tim goes on to describe Lane7’s offerings and how the company works with local businesses to provide the most delicious food in town. “In addition to our traditional bowling alley services, we offer what we call ‘secondary gaming’ across all of our Lane7 venues. This includes miscellaneous games that are probably a bit cheaper per person, such as beer pong, pool, karaoke, and sometimes mini golf, depending on the size of the unit. Most importantly, each of our venues has its own bar and we outsource the food to local food vendors. Our food suppliers are always local to each venue’s city, and we may change suppliers every six months to a year to keep things interesting for our customers.
“In the UK, there has been a significant reinvention of food halls and sweet traders. As a result, we generally work with select, highly regarded local food vendors who may want to operate from a more permanent site. Alternatively, we may collaborate with a local taco business, for example, that runs a couple of small restaurants in a city and ask them if they would like to take over the kitchen in our venue for a year or two. Thus, we usually look for suppliers with a strong local presence, who are already trading in the city or town our venue is in,” he expands.
Unique offering
An ever-changing catalog of food options would not be complete without Lane7’s signature drinks range. Tim explains the role of the company’s premium drinks product line in making it stand out from other boutique bowling operators. “Lane7 has always differentiated itself by specifically catering to professionals and corporate events rather than families. After ten years of doing this, I believe that this concept is starting to gain more traction around the world. The key to making Lane7’s venues more attractive to adults and professionals is to offer drinks that can compete with cocktail bars.
“In fact, our locals’ favorite cocktail bar sets the standard for the kind of drinks we want to provide. We are not looking to offer the food and drink options traditionally found in a family-oriented bowling alley – which are excellent for those looking to cater to that market – we need our bar offer to be able to compete with that of our neighbors. For instance, when we are in cities like Bristol or Manchester, and our neighbors are specialist cocktail bars or craft beer pubs, we absolutely need to match their standard. While this was a choice we made when we first started, it is now no longer a choice as we are in direct competition with local businesses. We want people to come visit us, and to do so, we have to surpass their offerings.”.
With Lane7 opening a new venue in Birmingham’s Bullring and Grand Central shopping center, Tim explains the advantages of this specific location. “We have always strived to get an external entrance for our venues. If Lane7 was a family brand, we would be happy with just an internal entrance, but the reality is that we trade until as late as 2 am. Hence, we need an external entrance as the shopping center closes before that time. Our Bullring and Central location features an external entrance situated near the railway station, in the heart of the city, making it easier for large groups to arrive for a night out. This site is unique because it was once an office, but with the landlord’s assistance, we were able to gain access to the main shopping center, which is ideal for daytime trade during holidays and football season. Location is key, but easy access into the location is just as important,” he says.
Looking to the future, Lane7 is poised for expansion into Europe, as Tim highlights. “Beyond growth in the UK, we strive to expand in mainland Northern Europe to expose the brand to asset managers there,” he ends.