“Having More People in Your Climbing Gym No Longer Means Making More Money”

Former director of Westway, the UK’s largest climbing centre, and now a consultant for the sector, Jez Tapping has spent the past decade watching an industry that never stops reinventing itself. Between accelerated consolidation, forced professionalisation, and increasingly diversified business models, the UK climbing gym market is going through changes as profound as they are specific. It took a proper cup of tea to make sense of it all. A well-steeped conversation.

Jez Tapping © Courtesy of Jez Tapping

Vertige Media: How would you summarise the current state of indoor climbing in the UK?

Jez Tapping : Last year, the sector saw a revenue drop of between 11 and 15%. This year, the first quarter has been solid, but we are clearly moving out of the expansion phase and into a maturation phase. That translates into a lot of mergers and acquisitions — larger structures buying up smaller ones.

We’re also seeing increased professionalisation among independent operators: those passionate climbers who set up their own gyms now need to level up in key areas like HR and financial management. A climbing gym no longer runs itself. It’s a complex business that needs to be properly understood and managed.

“In London, we went from 15 gyms before Covid to 34 today”

Vertige Media : What concrete phenomena reflect this increasing complexity?

Jez Tapping : The major phenomenon, to my mind, is the erosion of the middle segment. Gyms are now focusing on beginners on one side, and advanced climbers on the other. Average climbers — people like you and me — are a little forgotten.

And then there’s another fundamental shift: the decoupling of footfall from revenue. Having more people through the door no longer automatically means making more money.

Vertige Media : How do you explain the rapid economic growth, followed by the stagnation, of climbing gyms?

Jez Tapping : The Olympics accelerated a dynamic that was already underway. But the arrival of capital accelerated everything. In London, we went from 15 gyms before Covid to 34 today. That growth came primarily from chains that already had financial resources. The Verlinvest fund acquired The Hangar in the UK and Boulders in Denmark, making it the world’s largest operator with over 40 sites.

Without that, this expansion would have taken 15 to 20 years. Investors compressed it into five. Last year, several British chains were acquired by French or British groups. These consolidation moves are a sign of a market that is stabilising and restructuring.

Vertige Media : Which business models truly work over the long term?

Jez Tapping : The real revolution is the diversification of offerings — just like in the fitness sector over the past 25 years. We’re seeing very distinct positionings emerge: premium centres with high-end coaching and personalised services; community-oriented, convivial centres, where 90% of the market sits; and minimalist, low-price structures that are highly individualistic and rely on volume.

Youth coaching has become central. At Westway, 50% of our revenue came from coaching, with 500 young people every week. It’s a strongly growing segment, especially in bouldering, where it was underexploited. In a context where household purchasing power is declining, adults are cutting back on their own leisure spending, but they continue to invest in their children’s activities. That’s a stable, resilient market.

But be careful: memberships are no longer the main revenue line in most gyms. It’s now either junior coaching or new casual climbers. That makes the business model more fragile, more transitional, with fewer guaranteed recurring revenues.

Vertige Media : You mentioned fitness. What lessons can climbing learn from that sector?

Jez Tapping : The fitness industry has about a 40-year head start on climbing in terms of commercial structuring. Segmentation is crucial: premium versus low-cost, paid coaching, tailored programming. You need to clearly define your positioning. Are you a “third place” with a café and a sense of community? Or a minimalist venue focused purely on climbing?

“The sector’s improvement over the next five years will come primarily from technology and intelligent use of data, not from new holds”

The other major lesson is data. Five years ago, you had to wade through complicated spreadsheets just to know your average basket size or visits per member. Today, with the proliferation of customer management systems, that information is instantly accessible.

These tools allow for decisions based on real data rather than intuition. The sector’s improvement over the next five years will come primarily from technology and intelligent use of data, not from new holds.

Vertige Media : Have bouldering and auto-belays revolutionised accessibility?

Jez Tapping : Absolutely. The big challenge for gyms is off-peak utilisation. Between 9am and 4pm on weekdays, the walls are underused. Bouldering has solved that problem for individual climbers. Auto-belays now allow rope walls to compete in that time slot, offering the same kind of autonomy.

“Many operators set up their gym as a hobby, not as a structured business”

Innovations like the Pro-grade lead auto-belay — which allows climbers to lead with an auto-belay device — show that there is a growing market. But return on investment remains a critical question given how expensive this equipment is.

The biggest market for auto-belays today is what we call Clip & Climb: colourful, playful climbing structures for children. In the UK, it has become a real industry, with spaces entirely dedicated to this family audience.

Vertige Media : What are the main medium-term challenges for the sector?

Jez Tapping : The first challenge is professionalisation. Many operators set up their gym as a hobby, not as a structured business. This resistance to change is a real obstacle at a time when the market demands rigorous management.

At the same time, we’re seeing rapid homogenisation: in five years, we’ve gone from a sector dominated by independents to one dominated by chains, with a real risk of standardisation.

But the most critical challenge is operators not understanding their own revenue streams. Many don’t realise that the entry fee is no longer their main source of turnover. They keep making anecdotal decisions instead of relying on data.

The membership churn rate in our gyms now mirrors that of traditional sports facilities — eight to ten months on average. You absolutely have to understand why people are leaving and invest heavily in acquisition and retention. It’s a matter of survival.

“Climbing is far more embedded in French culture than in the UK”

Vertige Media : Are we seeing unionisation among climbing gym staff, as in France or the US?

Jez Tapping : Not really in the UK. The majority of employees — around 80% — are between 15 and 25 years old. It’s a very young sector, with few long-term careers, except in route setting or management. There’s no climbing-specific union because there simply aren’t enough people to justify one. I don’t see that dynamic emerging here in the next decade.

Vertige Media : How do you look at the French market?

Jez Tapping : What strikes me is that the French Federation is very well developed, and there are an enormous number of walls in schools and educational institutions. This culture of clubs and non-commercial practice gives the French commercial market enormous growth potential compared to ours.

Climbing is far more embedded in French culture than in the UK. That creates a solid base of people who know and practise the sport from a young age. The challenge will be turning that base into a clientele for commercial centres without undermining the existing club culture.

Vertige Media : What should climbing gym managers anticipate in 2026?

Jez Tapping : There is now enough data, experience and precedent in our sector. Ten years ago, we were fumbling in the dark. Today, you need to go out and seek information from those who have that experience, while staying aware of everyone’s biases.

But the fundamental advice is: define your business precisely. Don’t just say, “I’m going to set up a climbing gym.” Define who you’re building for, with what exact concept, and how you’re going to generate revenue sustainably. Which market segment are you targeting? What unique experience will you offer? How will you differentiate yourself?

Without a clear direction and a strong identity, you won’t get investment and you won’t have a viable strategy in an increasingly competitive and segmented market. The era when you could just “build a wall and they will come” is definitively over.