Soft Play Equipment will be one of your most significant investments when starting an Indoor Play centre. It is not uncommon to spend in excess of £100,000 and so it is imperative that you make the best informed decision possible and choose the appropriate Soft Play equipment and Soft Play supplier for your business.

This document provides an overview of the things you should consider and ways in which you can research and evaluate Soft Play suppliers so that you can minimise the inherent risk when making such a significant purchase.

STEP 1; Stop

Before you take any action, stop!

Take a few hours to consider the following:

• Why do you want to run a play centre? What goals and objectives have you set for yourself and your new business?
• Do you really understand the demands of operating a soft play centre? Are you prepared for the 24 hour a day, 7 day a week commitment?
• Do you have the necessary business skills to run such a business? If not can you acquire them through training?
• Do I have a clear idea of what I want my indoor play centre to look like?
• Do I only want to provide Soft Play Equipment or should I consider other items such as a ceramic café, go-karts and interactive equipment?
• What age children am I looking to attract?
• How will I make the experience satisfying for parents/guardians/carers?
• Do I have a suitable building in mind that reflects my ideas and budget? Would this building stand a good chance of obtaining requisite planning permission? Have I identified the hidden costs associated with the building such as stamp duty and business rates?
• Have I researched competitive play areas in my chosen area and will the area support a new play centre (or do I have something that will differentiate me from other play centres?). Have I also considered the likely response from my competitors once I open my doors?
• Do I have basic financial information that will enable me to prepare a basic business plan (you will need to prepare a more detailed version later in the process)?
• Can I access sufficient funds to establish a play area that reflects my ideas and business plan?

If you answer no to more than one of these questions, it is worth considering conducting further research and / or contacting an independent Consultant before contacting a soft play supplier.

STEP 2; Think

Think and record; what do I want a play supplier to do for me?

Traditional Soft Play suppliers (each of whom can be found at Share and Compare Play will want to provide a ‘complete solution’. This has been the approach for over thirty years but this is beginning to change as the Internet provides the choice, information and potentially facilitates significant savings whilst working with the best sub-contractors in each category (many of whom are used by the traditional suppliers)

Also, because of the proliferation of Indoor Play centres in recent years and the subsequent need to differentiate one play centre from the other, soft play equipment should likely be only one of the elements in a modern day play centre.

This evolution causes difficulties for traditional suppliers because they can no longer be the sole point of contact (often, they are unable to make sufficient money on items other than soft play); it is therefore almost impossible for them to provide independent advice on setting up a modern soft play area that will provide sustainable value to customers.

Traditional organisations would of course prefer you to use their design and theming team, their manufacturing capability (although in truth hardly anyone manufactures the soft play equipment anymore), their installation team (very few companies solely employ their own installation teams) and even their own finance ‘partners’.

However, it is now possible to use an independent designer whose work you like and combine this with a different organisation for theming / marketing and another for the manufacture and installation of the equipment; for the first time, each of these services is available independent of a traditional play supplier.

Traditional suppliers for now dominate the market and if that is the way you prefer to work (although we would still suggest you compare each element separately as well as a whole), there are plenty of established suppliers of this kind of solution for you to contact, all are listed on Share and Compare Play. The trade body for these organisations is the Association of Play Industries. It is not imperative for Soft Play suppliers to be members of the API and some reputable companies just not to join for various reasons.

Whatever you decide, it may help to establish your own criteria with regard to a play supplier before contacting any supplier, the following is a simple way of establishing your buying criteria (guideposts to remind you of the characteristics you want your supplier to meet):

Company: Ask yourself; what are the most important characteristics / competencies that are important to me when choosing a soft play supplier?

For example; is it important that you work with an established company, the most creative company, a UK or International company, a one-stop-shop or variety of suppliers, a company that offers ‘safe’ payment terms or a better price, a company that offers a comprehensive maintenance and after sales service or one that refers you to a specialist partner?

Product: Ask yourself; what are the most important aspects relating to the design and the product that I would like to purchase?

For example; what events do you most like and dislike, do you want lots of theming or is it more important to provide great visibility of the play area, is quality critical to you or are you willing to sacrifice a little quality to buy at a cheaper price, do you want to attract children of all ages or a specific age group, do you want to provide only soft play equipment or a mixture of products?

Personal: What is most important to you as an individual (or as a group of individuals) with regard to the company you wish to work with?

For example, is it most important to have personal contact, that they are financially secure, that they offer free support and that they listen to you?

At this stage, it is important to be recording your criteria so that you can use it later in your decision making process. You are unlikely to find an organisation that meets all of your criteria and standards so we would suggest you prioritise your criteria and be a little flexible.

STEP 3; Initial Research

Armed with your criteria, start to shop around.

We recommend (and it is good practice based on purchasing standards) that you contact between three and five suppliers for each significant purchase that you make. It may also be worth considering contacting an independent consultant to help guide you through the process and provide information specific to your situation.

At this stage of your buying process, you should consider visiting as many play centres as possible, in and outside of your geographical area (and ask them who supplied the play equipment), visit as many company and industry websites as possible and then make contact with at least three play suppliers.

Start evaluating and recording your experience of working with each play supplier from the first point of contact (please review each supplier at each stage on Share and Compare Play). Email enquiries to play suppliers and note how long does it take them to call you? How are you treated on the phone? Are they open to your ideas, interested in you and is the person knowledgeable, helpful? Are they willing to arrange a meeting and will they travel to meet you? Do they offer free (without obligation) business advice? Are they willing to learn about and understand your personal and business objectives?

Never commit to a supplier until you are ready and do not commit in exchange for information because the same information becoming readily available for free.

You may find that suppliers ask you the following questions:

• Do you have a building?
• Have you approached the council regarding whether a particular building will get planning permission?
• What is your budget?
• Have you got access to funds?
• Which other play suppliers have you contacted?
• Have you written your business plan?

These questions are the industries way of qualifying people that contact them so that they can decide with whom to spend time. Most suppliers have a surprising number of prospective customers interested in starting an indoor play centre; approximately only 10% of them actually come to fruition. The challenge for soft play suppliers is to identify the ‘serious people’ without alienating those who are not serious yet but may proceed in the future.

This may seem a little harsh but it is a challenge for the suppliers because they incur significant cost to receive leads and serve prospective customers. It is best to be honest about your progress and let them know how serious you are by being prepared before you make contact.

STEP 4; Choose three suppliers

Once you have completed your initial research, choose three suppliers with whom you are going to invest time and energy. This might seem time consuming but it may save you tens of thousands of pounds.

Talking of money, we would suggest that you set an absolute maximum figure and ask play suppliers to design within that framework. As the market is trending towards a more holistic offering (not just soft play equipment) then whatever you were thinking of spending, it is worth considering reducing this by between 50% and 75%. One of the most significant tips to come from the Play operators we have interviewed is that they wish they had spent less on play equipment and grown into the space over a period of time. If you’re concerned about giving play suppliers a budget to work within, then we suggest asking them to justify their quote in detail so you can see how the costs have been apportioned, and then compare against other quotes you have received.

We suggest that you complete at least some of following activities to evaluate suppliers (this should vary depending on the criteria that are important to you, this stage is all about measuring how suitable each supplier is based on your buying criteria):

• Visit a selection of their customers (both with and without the supplier in attendance) and ask every question you can think of
• Visit their office and meet the team to see if they ‘fit’ with you
• Look at their financial accounts. Always run a credit check on each major supplier; it only costs approximately £30 and it will give you peace-of-mind. In recent years, several Soft Play suppliers have gone out of business holding customers deposits and some significant suppliers are rumoured to be in financial difficulty so be safe
• Regularly visit Share and Compare Play to check what customers are saying about each supplier (sorry, we had to add that one!). Don’t be put off by one negative review but we suggest using this information to aid your own decision.
• Remember how you prioritised each of your chosen criteria so you can identify whether each supplier has met your most important criteria.

STEP 5; Specify your requirements and get quotations

By this stage, you are now likely more experienced and aware of what you want from a supplier and what you want the play equipment to look like and include.

Use this knowledge to specify exactly what you want to buy and ask two preferred suppliers to quote.

“The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde

Soft Play suppliers like to offer slightly different designs so that you can be convinced that you are not comparing apples with apples and so the negotiation does not depend on price alone. Indeed, there are likely to be differences and that is why you need to decide what is valuable to you (refer to stage two) and decide accordingly; don’t buy solely on price. If you want to be sure that you are getting the best price, ask a number of companies to quote for exactly the same design. Don’t be afraid to come up with your own ideas/draft design to guide your suppliers and be sure to avoid being given off the shelf library designs that were designed for other Play Centres.

STEP 6; Negotiate and Buy

Once you are comfortable with your choice of supplier and the design / product, negotiate and buy from your preferred provider(s).

Our only input at this stage is to suggest that you don’t just focus on the negotiation of the price and have a clear strategy in mind. Also, consider additional topics that may be important such as payment terms (minimise your deposit payments and aim for payment in stages as equipment is delivered etc) and anything in the small print that worries you.

STEP 7; Get a safety inspection

If you have worked with a traditional supplier then they should arrange an independent safety inspection. This inspection is an audit to ensure that the equipment conforms to the relevant safety standards.

If you have worked directly with best-of-breed suppliers then you can contact the same safety organisations via the Share and Compare Play website.

STEP 8; Feedback at Share and Compare Play

Our aim is to transform a traditional industry by facilitating feedback, enabling transparency and fostering a community where ideas are shared to the benefit of the whole.

Once you have experienced a relationship with a supplier, good, indifferent or bad, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts by visiting Share and Compare Play.

Please note:

This document is based on personal experience and research. It does not constitute advice and any information should be considered with regard to specific circumstances. All information is utilised at your own risk and should be followed up with your own research. See our full Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy at Share and Compare Play

Before its release, this document was shown to the owners of the three Play Centres to check the relevance of its content and to ask for any additional items that could be added, based on their experiences of going through this process.

We would like to thank them for their feedback and contributions:

Ian Kearney: Cheeky Monkeys, Bamber Bridge

Russell Gardner: Fun 4 All, Macclesfield and Chester

Lyn Presence: Parents Paradise, Bushey