Burhill Group Limited, owner and operator of 22 golf courses across 10 UK golf clubs, as well as 10 Adventure Leisure facilities, has become an official licensed operator of two of ITV’s Ninja Warrior UK Adventure Parks in England.
The appointment sees BGL and Adventure Leisure take over operations at the Ninja Warrior UK venue in Sheffield, as well as the brand-new facility in Southampton, with an agreement in principle already in place to develop three new sites per year over the initial five-year partnership period.
The deal confirms that BGL will be working in close partnership with ITV to continue the rollout of the successful Ninja Warrior UK leisure venues, and also exploring opportunities to license other ITV Studios programme brands.
Ninja Warrior UK Adventure Parks are multi age and ability activity and fitness locations, inspired by the hit ITV show. Open to the public, the fun-packed multiple course venues are geared to an inclusive and broad visitor profile. All venues are fun, safe, and accessible – enabling the public to take on the distinctive challenges of the famous courses, creating their own Ninja Warrior UK journeys. Ninja Warrior UK is derived from the Sasuke format in Japan, with the global ‘Ninja Warrior’ brand also extremely popular in multiple territories, including the USA and Australia.
Fergus Campbell, Head of Commercial Development at ITV Studios, commented: “Ninja Warrior UK indoor leisure venues have captured the imagination of families, kids, colleagues and friends in more and more locations across the UK since 2018, and we’re thrilled to be working with BGL in Sheffield and Southampton to coincide with the reopening of the leisure economy. In common with our wider network of Ninja Warrior UK licensed operators, the team at BGL will bring ambition, scale and first-class customer experience to the brand so that even more visitors can enjoy their own Ninja journeys.”
Andy Scholey, Operations and Development Director of Adventure Leisure Limited, at BGL, added: “This is an exciting opportunity for us to expand the leisure facility operation side of our business and we look forward to playing an integral part in the rollout of additional Ninja Warrior UK venues in the coming years. It has been a pleasure to work with Mike Anderson and his team at Innovation Leisure on this journey so far.
“We are looking forward to helping develop the Ninja Warrior UK proposition, using our leisure, property and operational management expertise to work with ITV and Innovation Leisure in hopefully bringing more leisure related offers to the market.”
Sophie Burke, BGL’s Group Head of Marketing, said: “Ninja Warrior UK is one of the most successful physical prime-time television game shows ever, and through this partnership, we believe that we will cement our position as the go-to operating business for anybody who is looking to license a new leisure facility.”
Colin Mayes, CEO of BGL, added: “We are delighted to have formed a business and commercial relationship with ITV to develop Ninja Warrior UK, and to also potentially bring our operational flair and expertise to other ITV formats. We are very much looking forward to working together in the future.”
Adventure Leisure Limited, a subsidiary of BGL, is the leading operator of leisure venues across the country, both indoor and outdoor. With an aggressive expansion plan it is rapidly growing to become the leading operator of Adventure Golf in the UK, with 10 sites currently in its portfolio. Adventure Leisure are always looking for new site opportunities – landlords and agents are invited to get in touch via info@adventureleisureltd.co.uk to discuss potential space.
To find out more about Ninja Warrior UK, head online to www.ninjawarrioruk.co.uk.