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Bron Launsby
Let it slide
Park World Editor, Matt Broughton, speaks to Bron Launsby about his previous successes in the OOH entertainment space and his new brand, Slick City.
Matt Broughton: Can you tell us a little about your previous experience? Bron Launsby: I started my career in Corporate Retail positions for companies like Kohls Department Store in Marketing, Operations and Product Development positions. These positions were extremely entrepreneur type positions working for large companies. After 13 years in Corp retail, I started a business developing and selling
resale product to major retailers. After five years of this business, I realised that I needed some diversification as the outlook for traditional retailers as customers was not going to be as strong in the future. Then, in 2011, it was time to enter Experiential Retail! I had a friend who
was interested in partnering with me on a new business concept which was an Indoor Trampoline Park. At the time, there were probably 20 of these in the world. At first, I was NOT interested mainly due to the risk and not understanding the business model (as a kid, my parents did not want me on trampolines). After researching the business model and having validation calls, I decided to attend a discovery day. When I left discovery day, my question was HOW MANY territories should I buy. Over the next 12 years, I grew my footprint to be the largest franchisee in the largest brand of trampoline parks (Sky Zone).
I immersed myself in
experiential retail... attending conferences, always visiting new concepts / competition, serving on industry and franchise boards, etc.
In February of 2024 I sold all my trampoline parks to focus solely on Slick City Action Park.
MB: So what were your first experiences of dry slide technology? BL: One of the reasons for the success of each of my trampoline parks was the regular innovation (attractions and programs) that allowed my parks to stay fresh / engaging to our guests. One of those new attractions was a dry slide technology by Slick Slide. This technology allowed guests to get speed and accelerate down and then up a ramp and fly into the air landing in an air bag. Prior to Slick Slide, this performance was only achievable with water slides. We ended up buying the protype from Slick Slide and put it into my trampoline park. The rest is history!
MB: What was the path that led you from that moment to Slick City? BL: The first slide was installed in my new trampoline park in 2020. With COVID, this opening was delayed until late May of 2020. Gary [CEO and Founder of Slick Slide] and I started discussing additional designs, etc. while the slide was being installed. Over the course of many months, Gary and I were both aligned on the success of a "slide park".
MB: What do the next nine months look like for you as we progress though this pivotal year? BL: As mentioned, we plan to open 8-11 locations by the end of this year. We have already sold 10 franchises and anticipate selling north of 40 in total employees from a sister company. We will also be hiring some additional key employees as we continue to scale.
working on number two in St. Louis. Both of these locations have - and continue to -perform much better than other active entertainment options.
MB: BL: We see a day where families and friend groups around the world get away from technology and day-to-day to stress to share experiences together (TO PLAY!) and we believe this will be at a Slick City Action Park. We are opening our 4th location next month. We have leases and anticipate opening 8-11 locations this year.
In 2025 we anticipate opening around 30 locations, franchise and corporate locations.
MB: What insight can you share with us about the move from franchisee to franchisor? BL: Franchising is the best business model I know.
I have worked for
Corporate America, been in business for myself twice, been a large franchisee and now a franchisor. Each step of my career pushed me to learn more, take on more, etc. The move from franchisee to franchisor has been smooth (but not necessarily easy!) I knew exactly what I liked / disliked about other systems and made ours different. My core team, that has been with me from the last chapter, helped immensely. Ultimately, for a franchisor to be successful it must first anticipate a want / need and have a better solution, then it needs to create a system so the franchisee can have lots of success. This is what we have done.
Slick Slide with the plan to help fund our first Slick City Action Park. 2022 we opened our first location in Denver Colorado, while simultaneously
APRIL 2024
In late 2020, I invested in In June of
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