A Magical Conversation with Ben Fry: The Wizardry Behind The Hole In Wand & Cauldron Company

Step into the enchanting world of magic and potions as we chat with Ben Fry, one of the masterminds behind The Hole In Wand and The Cauldron Company in York, North Yorkshire! 🧙‍♂️✨ Discover the secrets behind these mystical attractions, from spellbinding mini-golf to immersive potion experiences. Ben shares his journey, the inspiration behind these magical ventures, and what makes York the perfect place for a bit of wizardry. Don't miss this spellbinding adventure! 🎩🔮

#York #Magic #TheHoleInWand #CauldronCompany #HarryPotterVibes

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Transcript

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All right, guys, we've got a little bit of a different one for you today. This time we're heading off to the magical city of York. So buckle up. And here we go. All right, guys, so a little bit different today. Here we are at the hole in one in York. And we've got the man behind the scenes. We've got Ben with us as well. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you. First off, thank you for getting the name right. People call it the hole in the wand and it drives me insane. Oh, no. So thank you. That was a big star. I'm Ben Troy. I'm the chief investment officer of the potions cauldron. That includes, magical shops, mini golf courses, and, of course, our magical books as well. Okay, so what have you got here in New York itself? Well, York is the home of the business. We started with a little shop on a little street called The Shambles, which people will be aware of. We think possibly Europe's most famous street, known as an inspiration, possibly for a famous wizard film. So there are a few spots. Could that be. I haven't seen it, to be honest. I'm sure I should probably catch up on Netflix. But we started down there. But what we wanted to do is we didn't want to make a shop that sells merch from any movie. We wanted to make a shop that could live within a magical realm. So being in a potter loves rings or Hocus Pocus, so we wanted a shop that could actually be part of that world. Yeah. So to do that, we had to make our own products rather than sell other people's merch. Oh yeah. That's when we came up with our magical drinks, which we have here. And this is our butterscotch beer. And you turn it upside down, spit it three times, and the magic inside comes to life. And the beauty is, these are sold in our values. And some of the, some of the less reputable venues have even spread to South Yorkshire recently. I don't know about Leicester. So. Yeah. So you you started off in the shambles and you started with your cauldron drawing. Yes. Obviously they were going well on the shambles. I mean, it must be going phenomenally well, as Kirsty says. Location, location, location. Oh, it really is. And then we find ourselves here, the holding wand. How did that come about? The pandemic. So. Okay, obviously we have the shop, and we were doing some wholesale with the drinks. It was going well soon as the pandemic hit. Obviously, the wholesale business fell apart and we realized that we were very reliant on on just that revenue stream. Yeah. Whereas myself and my business partner Phil, we love the attractions. We love mini golf. At the time there wasn't a mini golf in North Yorkshire, right? Which we thought was crazy. And we're also both passionate about City Center. So Phil is chair of the High Street Forum for my since I am the York Town Crier. So we like city centers. Yeah, nothing wrong with outlets and nothing wrong with our town shopping, but we're passionate about city centers and we want attractions in city centers. So we kind of combined that love of mini golf, love of magic, the brand we had and wanting to see city centers be vibrant. They don't have to change. City centers have to be cool about experience. Yeah, I was in Doncaster recently doing flip out. You know, you go in French Gate and there is more almost attraction like stuff as there is to new shots. Yeah, and that's the way it's going to have to go. So we were part of that journey and this is our first golf course, what we like to do with them as well as you put them there somewhere famous so opposite us, as you can see out the window. Yeah. Is the world famous Jorvik Viking Center, the greatest Viking museum in the world. And they've got a brown sign. They've got a big marketing budget and what we hope is that once people are gone and seen the Vikings on day one, they come and play golf on day two. Well then then it works into a symbiosis. So people aren't just queuing for one thing, they might be coming here for you, or they might be coming here for them, and everybody helps each other. So nobody wants York to be just an afternoon visit. Yeah. You want 2 or 3 guys that works for everybody. It works for the restaurants, hotels. Does it works for us? Yeah, definitely. So we've got the hole in one then. This was the first one. This is where it started. How many holy ones have we got now I see we've got four. We've got a fifth on the way, so. And they're all a bit different. So obviously. Are you giving us a scoop there. Are you telling us where that is? I could tell you, but you don't have to cast a spell on you. And, I think, so at the moment we start with the holy month in York, obviously, this worked really well because we're known to be in York and, from there we went to Blackpool, obviously very decent market to York. But, you know, Blackpool is interesting because for many people there's some great stats. I think it's the most hated resort in the country, but also the most popular. So if you like you, you like it. If you don't like it, you don't. Yeah. But 18 million people a year do like it. Yes. The numbers dwarfs, you know, even York. Yeah. So, we went there. Again, same idea. We're right near the tower and we want an indoor traction. The other thing we try and do is value. So you if you're a kid, you can come and play golf here for 699. And within that you get to take one of the drinks home. Brilliant. So you know, you're getting a we're not trying to sting you with a gift shop. Yeah. You walk away with something so you don't have to buy anything extra. And over half the value is in the drink. Yeah, we want families not to be ripped off. Yeah. We agree 699 8099 for now we think it's value. I think it's a great price point for now is entertainment. It's value. No we're not thinking of the people. But there are there attractions where you know you're looking at an hour 19, £20. Yeah. My money. So we thought that would work in Blackpool. And it did. From there, everybody says York and Chester were the same aren't they. Rather, which is best. But they've both got cathedrals and churches and racecourses and walls. So, you know, they're very symbiotic. So get Chester what for us. And then, we did our first, venue working in the North East. We couldn't find anywhere in the central Durham, but we did find somewhere Dalton Park. Okay. So that was interesting because again, that was a shock in Cork where we wanted to try this idea that retail attraction can live together. Okay. Yeah. Because the because I did I don't know, you see, stats in the last few days stats have come out about some of the biggest retailers have had a tough 12 weeks. They're all struggling. It's been a tough year for retail. Yes I know yeah. And I minimum wage state of the economy cost of living. It's going to be tough. Yeah. So we're hearing that you know there might be 200,000 retail jobs lost this year. So we're hoping that if retail is vibrant and next to attractions that together we can all we can all battle against the online giants. Yeah definitely. So your four locations are quite well spread out pretty much in the in pretty much in the north. Yeah. Are you finding a variation in, in actual uptake. Is it, is it easier to what is it possible to actually look at the market to go. Right. Okay. I think he is a little busier. There's peaks and troughs because like you said York and Blackpool very different. Yeah. I don't think I'm going to be anybody's Yorkshire microclimate. York has 9 million visitors. York is strong for us and I was happy. It helps that we're based here. Yeah, it helps that we have a radio station. That's where part of it is here as well. So you know we're constantly plugging the brand. So that helps. Elsewhere Blackpool is really strong post-pandemic because people aren't going abroad. And whether you call it a staycation or whatever, everybody would say Blackpool's had a tough year this year and we've seen that, you know, Chester new market place for us. Don't park a shopping park. What we found there was actually weekends and holidays a strong you right. And saying all of them are completely different. There is no every marketing strategy and every approach has to be different because none of them are the same. Yeah. Okay. So that's what's happening now. Yeah. It's, I've noticed that you've not told us where the new one is. We'll move on swiftly for that. Is there a next step for you guys? We have, we've got potions, coach on the shambles. We've got the Potions Express in the train station, which is like a little kiosk, a little. Welcome to our brand. As you arrived, York station, we've got another venue on the Shambles, which we call the Potions Academy, which is, like an experience stream. Almost like where you do, like, coaching classes. We've got, I know, somewhere else. Yeah. Something similar. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. I mean, I can't think of the name, but that's us. But whatever. Yeah. Know whatever the the potion is called and then went to Edinburgh. So we have a shop in Edinburgh as well. Cool. Which obviously does very similar shambles. And then our next venue is going to be combining all of it. It's going to be a golf, a potions cold and retail, the experience rooms. And then also bringing an outdoor element as well. So it's almost bringing everything we've learned from everywhere else. Yeah, into one place. That's right. So basically go all under one roof. Yeah. Okay. Where people can say that we've watched Phoenix. Nice sunshine indoors. Sunshine and sunshine indoors. That's that's our business model. That's it. All right. So what's next in line for. Well it's it's called the. Do you like the golf course cottage. You know, I'm a massive march for anything magical. It's called I'm desperate. I mean, please leave us a five star Google reviews. You know, I'm sorry. I'm harsh. I'm Archer. Reviews are this I was next Rhodes. Obviously as I mentioned, expansion of our our physical venues. Okay. So obviously we're we're doing the sunshine indoors. Bring everything together. Yeah. From there, obviously we want to get to a point where we've got, you know, top ten golf courses or we have. Okay, you know, a portfolio of golf courses. I've, I've already got a map with pins in it. And these are your ideas and and listen, I you're in similar game to us. You know, there are places where you think is Lincolnshire similar to York. You know, is is Great Yarmouth like Blackpool? Yeah. London. The holy grail, everybody's holy grail. Yeah. You know so yeah we've we've got loads we discuss and then of course, you know, you look at the numbers for big cities and stuff like you know, do we want to go to Manchester. Do we have there's lots we have a list. But I think the thing is we tried a bit of everything so far. So we need to define. Are we about tourist spots? Is city center bigger because this counts as competitive socializing. But we're doing it different because more family orientated than just yeah, drink drink drink. So yeah, there's lots of thoughts on on where to go and then also as well. So logistics as you know for managing multi venues around the clock. The more time you just spend in the car being frustrated. Oh right. Don't get me started. And just cost of delivery. And because everything all the warehouses in York. So there's yeah. But we want to get to ten because there is economies of scale okay okay. So we're cracking on with this whole business idea. Yeah. We're the shambles is going great. We've got now multiple of the portion plus venues as well. What's next. So for us what I wanted to do is do more with the drinks. Now the frustration for me, if I'm being honest, is people aren't much going around. Otherwise we wouldn't do well. Yeah. And Magical Stuff is popular Year-Round. But if you talk to a major retailer, they see magic Halloween magic. Halloween has to be Halloween. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because this is all year round. People like this stuff all year round. You know, it's not just a week in October yet. The potion is cold and brand gets you. So patron health is that right. So our plans for this year, we, we've already seen that we can work with other partners. So, for example, you might seen that we're going to that we have made drinks for Disney Cruise Line. So they have their Haunted mansion problem at Disney Treasure. That's great. And they're now serving the potions. I mean, I got to be honest, I'm losing my mind because our staff like I did, they spin the drinks and then and the Disney staff are doing that. So to have Disney staff doing that with your brand, honestly, mind blowing. I mean, just just to align yourself next to the Disney brand in itself is a massive, massive total. Disney. I'd given the drinks for free because it's it's I'm a massive Disney fan. You know what they built and the universe that they build is why we got into what into doing stuff that is immersive. So that's huge. And that got us thinking, what else can we do with the drinks we have that is maybe a bit more all year round. So we are talking to a couple of partners right now, about doing something which takes us from being pigeonholed wrongly. Yeah, you might say. Yeah, on seasonal and Halloween, to being all year round. So that's that's the plan. And then obviously we'd love to do more with Disney Cruise Line. They have more cruise ships, they have more bars on board. You know, we would we would love to expand that relationship if we can. Nice. So the future is bright. The future is magical. Is it I don't know I mean your business. Do you not wake up every day thinking, oh, I listen, I think I think everybody has to accept this is going to be hard. Yeah. I think everybody who's out there, if they think about doing something, you know, please go out and spend a few quid, you're not going to spend what you did. You might you might scale back a bit. But yeah, these attractions and everything going on, they all need your support. Yeah. They do need your support. And I think what you, what we all know is we kind of always knew it before. And it's the same as the Disney thing. You know, you can see a defined difference something that's it's that these put together, it's a great experience that will carry on the ones there's going to be some that fall by the wayside. It happens in every scene, whether it's escape rooms, whether it's whatever, you know, but I think the product that you're showing here and some of the things with the, with the, the drinks and stuff like that, it's just going to go on and, yeah, I mean, like I say our thing, I know you do the same is we try to make it massive. So for example, with golf, when they play golf there is nine golf balls. There's also riddles on every hole. They're trying to solve a mystery and they solve the mystery. And then they get rewarded one of the drinks based on their score. So what we're trying to do, and the reason I hope you know, that we have something, is that it's all about an adventure. It's it's more than just putting a golf hole in a hole or more than just drinking a drink. I know from what I've seen you guys do that, you know, you're saying, let's hope that that approach, because it's a more expensive approach and it's harder to do and exciting stuff. Let's hope that does hold us in good stead. Yeah, definitely. Well, thanks very much for your time today. Really appreciate it. Let's keep an eye out for what happens in that future. There's obviously a lot down the line, but thanks for watching. Don't forget gives us a subscribe and a thumbs up and drop us a comment. If there's something that you want us to ask, we'll get in touch with Ben and we'll find out what it is. So thank you very much and we'll catch you next time.