Soft Play Centres Fight to Stay Open as Costs Hit £9,756 a Quarter

One indoor soft play centre in north Shropshire counted just 10 to 15 visitors in an entire week over the summer — a level its owner calls unsustainable. Jessica Harvey, who has run Funzone in Whitchurch for over a year, says the business is now in genuine danger of closing.

"Over the summer, there has definitely been [times] where we probably had 10 to 15 people in all week, which just isn't sustainable," Harvey said. On some days, she was the only person in the building all day.

What happened to Funzone?

Funzone has existed as a soft play centre in Whitchurch for 17 years. It was sold two years ago, but the company that bought it went into liquidation. Harvey stepped in and bought the firm in October 2025.

Her first hot summer as owner has been extremely challenging. The industry is seasonal, she said, and warm weather keeps families away from indoor venues.

"It has been a bit demoralising," Harvey said. "We have tried so hard to bring things back, and obviously when you are investing heavily, but not only just investing, a lot of our time has gone into it too."

She described the hours behind the turnaround effort: "I'm talking getting up at six o'clock in the morning, being there for four hours before opening, and then not leaving the place until 12 at night because you're painting or building."

Harvey has plugged the revenue gap with a soft play trailer she built for events. But with the weather turning colder, she says the centre itself needs customers through the door again — and soon.

"Eventually, if no one uses it and there was no money coming in, it's not a viable business, is it?" she said. "So, you know, it would have to go. It [is a] kind of use it or lose it type situation."

What does it cost to run a soft play centre?

The numbers come from Connor Galbraith and his wife Nicole, who opened Wacky Playland in Kidderminster nearly two years ago. The couple left their jobs — he as an IT specialist, she as a chemist — and recently posted their running costs on social media to show customers the reality behind the price of admission.

Their figures, in Galbraith's words:

• "Three months of usage of electricity cost us £9,756.42"
• "Building insurance per year, is £6,410.47" — covering only the landlord's building, not public liability or employee liability
• A quarterly service charge of £5,837.33

Put together, those three line items alone run to more than £70,000 a year before a single staff wage, rent payment or piece of play equipment.

"Some customers do not realise the prices behind it, they just see it as, 'oh it's a business'," Galbraith said.

Two things kept Wacky Playland going through the summer: air conditioning and the 5% VAT relief. The business can still pay its bills, Galbraith said, but it is "really tight."

Is the lease the real problem?

The bigger worry sits further out. Wacky Playland is locked into a 10-year lease that goes up incrementally. Galbraith's concern is arithmetic, not emotion: if rent rises every year while everything else gets more expensive, the margins disappear.

"If costs keep going higher and higher then it does kind of question where we can be because, I'm sure any business owner knows, that we have a lease as a 10-year lease and as goes up incrementally," he said.

"If, as years go by, our rent is going to be higher and if, in this world how it's looking things are going to get more expensive, then it kind of makes you scared, like where is it going to be."

A closure already announced

The pressure has already claimed a victim in the same town. Last month, the owners of The Kidz Barn, also in Kidderminster, announced their soft play centre will close in January 2026 and go up for sale.

In a social media post, the centre said the decision "was not a decision that was made lightly."

"We weathered some incredibly difficult times," the post read. "During COVID, there were moments when we genuinely didn't know if we would ever reopen our doors. Somehow, we got through those hardest months, and being able to welcome you all back was something we will never forget."

What does this change for families and operators?

For families, the practical takeaway is stark: these venues live or die on winter footfall. Harvey's framing — "use it or lose it" — is literal. If the cold months don't bring customers back after a summer that emptied the play floors, more centres will follow The Kidz Barn to the sale listings.

For operators and anyone considering the sector, the Kidderminster cost sheet is the real disclosure: roughly £70,000 a year in electricity, insurance and service charges alone, on top of a lease that ratchets upward. The 5% VAT relief and air conditioning carried one business through a hot summer; nothing in the source suggests they'll cover a decade of rising rents.