Global Edition

‘Secret  Millionaire’ Puts Up £20m for Indoor Golf

3.35pm 6th September 2017 - Corporate

Waterworld Group Announces Plans to Launch Chain of Indoor Adventure Island Mini Golf Centres across the UK at the rate of four per year for the next five years.

Mo Chaudry

Mo Chaudry the charismatic British Asian entrepreneur and star of the Channel 4 TV show “Secret Millionaire”, has confirmed that his privately-owned Staffordshire based Waterworld Leisure Group has acquired the successful Birmingham leisure business Adventure Island Mini Golf, as part of an ambitious multi million pound deal to expand the leisure brand and operation.

Waterworld Group acquired the indoor golf business – which is located at the Star City retail complex in Birmingham – from leisure entrepreneur and founder John Whitehead. The acquisition will form the basis of a £20m investment by Mo Chaudry to take the leisure brand nationwide.

The Adventure Mini Golf business which was founded nine years ago by John Whitehead, is England’s first ever indoor tropical adventure complex featuring two themed 18 hole “crazy” golf courses across three levels. The adventure golf complex features tiki huts, waterfalls, volcanoes as well as a “Lost Hut Trail” and “Hidden Cove Challenge”.

The Birmingham site is the first in the Waterworld Group’s leisure portfolio with plans to invest £20m over the next five years. The group plans to roll out a chain of Adventure Mini Golf centres across the UK in key towns and cities at destination sites.

Commenting on the sale John Whitehead said; “We have had an incredibly successful time over the last nine years launching and operating Adventure Island Mini Golf and making it one of most successful destination leisure attractions in the Midlands. The time is now right to expand and develop the brand further, working with Mo Chaudry and the Waterworld group will allow us to realise the full potential of this fun and exciting concept nationwide.”

He continued; “Mo has an exceptional track record both in leisure management and promoting tourism projects. His track record and success is well documented turning Water- world around from a loss-making leisure attraction into one of the most successful water theme parks in the UK. We are excited to be working with Mo and the Waterworld Group and taking this to the next level.”

The second Adventure Island Mini Golf & Trampoline Centre will launch in Stoke on Trent at the Waterworld complex and is expected to open the middle of next year. John Whitehead will continue to run the Birmingham business whilst also heading up the group expansion strategy alongside Mo Chaudry.

Adventure Mini Golf fits perfectly within the Waterworld Group’s leisure portfolio

Mo Chaudry said “The acquisition of Adventure Mini Golf fits perfectly within the Waterworld Group’s leisure portfolio. We have ambitious plans to expand this exciting brand and concept which has a proven track record. It is an exciting concept and one which we believe will be a huge success across the UK. We plan to fund and roll out twenty of these indoor adventure golf centres across the UK, with a target to open around four new centres each year for the next five years.”

Ranked as one of the UK’s Top 100 Asian Business people with an estimated fortune of £100m, Mo Chaudry is an entrepreneur, property investor, motivational speaker and philanthropist. He is also manager and mentor to Eddie Hall recently crowned The World’s Strongest Man.

In addition to owning the M Club Spa & Fitness gyms in Staffordshire and M.I.C Properties, Mo Chaudry also owns one of the UK’s top aqua theme parks Waterworld, which he acquired as a failing business from The Rank Group in 1999 for “a knockdown £1.5 million”. After investing £10m in a phased refurbishment plan of the leisure attraction he turned the once loss-making operation around into a profitable operation and has continued to do so each year. Today the hugely popular aqua theme park which attracts over 400,000 visitors annually employs 140 people within the organisation.

Adventure Island Mini Golf http://adventureislandminigolf.co.uk/

Waterworld Group https://www.waterworld.co.uk/

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