Following the opening of Walkabout Lichfield last week, another newly acquired Walkabout opened last night in Solihull – the third new site of the year for Walkabout’s parent company iNTERTAIN.
As with Lichfield, the move has also seen the company move in to a former Après site, which has had the benefit of a £485,000 investment.
The addition of Solihull to the Walkabout portfolio brings the total number of Walkabout bars to 24 and the total amount invested in newly acquired venues (Brighton, Lichfield and Solihull) to £1.6 million this year.
iNTERTAIN, which has also been rolling out a programme of refurbishments to its existing Walkabout bars, exchanged contracts on the venues in Lichfield and Solihull in mid-August. The company has pushed to complete the venues in time to take advantage of the Rugby World Cup.
The bar, which has been designed as a ‘new style’ Walkabout, has undergone a complete transformation, benefitting from VIP areas, pre-bookable booths and an impressive new ‘reef bar’, where giant linked screens show footage of a coral reef and other great images.
John Leslie, CEO, iNTERTAIN said: “Our programme of investment in terms of refurbishing our existing venues and acquiring new sites has been extremely successful so far and we are confident that Solihull will add to this great track record.
“It has been an extremely tight turnaround with both Lichfield and Solihull but we are delighted to be open in both locations – even more so that we have done this in time to get some benefit from the Rugby World Cup.”
iNTERTAIN has completed eight major refurbishments and acquisitions in total since the start of the year.
Walkabout, 16 – 24 Poplar Road, Solihull, West Midlands, B91 3AB