The Escape Rooms, Newport’s first and original escape game experience, has acquired Exit 60, which is based in Market Street in the city.
Thanks to investment by the Development Bank of Wales, one of the original founders, Ellie Chopping, and her husband Chris Chopping, who joined the team later, have taken ownership of Exit 60 with immediate effect, securing two jobs and expanding the business.
The Escape Rooms was the city’s first escape room attraction when it first opened its doors in 2017, but the pandemic and refurbishment to the Market meant that it paused trading in 2022.
But Ellie and Chris have been working tirelessly to reopen the business at its new location, on the first floor of The Corn Exchange on High Street. They have also been working on Exit 60’s popular rooms, ‘Redbeard’s Revenge’ and ‘Banged Up’, which are currently rated number 1 and number 3 in Wales on ‘Escape The Review’.
Soon, the Exit 60 branding will be retired and both venues will be running under The Escape Rooms banner.
Ellie said of the progression of the business: “We are so excited to be able to bring Exit60 and the game rooms there into The Escape Rooms family. We played the rooms ourselves and absolutely loved them and the reviews they’ve had speak for themselves. So, when we discovered there was a chance to take over the running of the venue, we jumped at it, but we couldn’t have done it without the help of the Development Bank of Wales’ funding.
“The process of taking over Exit 60 has been really smooth and the support, both financially and administratively, from the Development Bank of Wales has meant that we were able to keep the doors open, not lose a single game, and keep all of the fantastic staff already working there on board too.”
Ellie added: “The purchase of Exit 60 strengthens our business and has significantly accelerated our plans for growth, but we have also been working hard to relaunch the original The Escape Rooms business, in our new location with rooms of our own design. We’ll be opening our newest games, The Occultist and Battle of the Bands ’99, at our Corn Exchange site within the next few months, so watch this space for our official opening date.”
Dylan Evans, Assistant Investment Executive at the Development Bank of Wales said: “We were glad that we were able to support Ellie and Chris in acquiring this attraction in Newport’s city centre, securing jobs at the business and supporting further growth.
“They have put a lot of work into re-opening the business at its new location, and we’re pleased that our support made the acquisition as smooth as possible.”
