WATCH: £1m Staffordshire trampoline centre bounces into action with 1,000 visitors a day
A £1million trampoline centre has opened in Staffordshire – with 1,000 people visiting the venue every day in its first week of opening.
The Flip Out centre created around 55 jobs at its site in Stone Business Park.
Visitors so far have ranged from eight month babies to 67-year-old pensioners.
Manager Elliot Shuttleworth said: "The whole concept is that if you take your children to other soft play areas you take them for an hour but there is nothing you can do yourself but sit there and watch.
"But we have had as many parents as kids come here. We had a family in the other day, children, their parents and their grandparents, they all bounced together and they all loved it." He estimated around 1,000 people a day had descended on the centre in its first week. It has brought joy as well with jobs coming back to the park, which this time last year saw desperate scenes and dozens of staff axed as former resident company City Link went under on Christmas Day.
The centre has 100 trampolines interlinked along its floor and walls as well as two pyramid structures in the middle where instructors will lead fitness classes set to be starting in the new year. Another addition in early January will be a 'Slam Ball' court combining basketball with trampolines. While later in the year phase two of the development will be unveiled after a public vote determines what centre chiefs do with the remaining quarter of the warehouse, with one possibility being a 'Total Wipeout' style assault course.
The Flip Out franchise started in Australia two years ago and already has more than 30 centres have sprung up across the globe.
Before December there were none in the UK but now, including Stone, there are three with others in Bristol and Portsmouth.
Mr Shuttleworth, from Stone, added: "I grew up here and so many people are just crying out for something to do I just thought what better place."
The venue costs £10 an hour or £15 for two hours to use for all ages. It is open 9am to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and 9am to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
