17/12/2023
Following our recent news regarding the temporary closure of our centre due to a cessation of public liability insurance coverage on our ninja obstacle course, we are now sadly announcing that this closure will be permanent.
During the past 3 weeks we have had a number of additional insurance brokers look into our situation (beyond those working for the previous 3 months), without success, and despite us having no liability claims in our 4 years of operation and a comprehensive liability waiver in place, we are unable to secure any viable coverage going forward.
As previously mentioned, this abrupt situation has come about due to a combination of factors including but not limited to;
* A broader public liability crisis in the public amusement industry which has affected indoor action centres, adventure operators, caravan park bouncy pillows, etc..
* An ever increasing industry of ‘ambulance chasing lawyers’ who push for much larger claims resulting from smaller incidents.
* The specific nature of our ninja course which was not a ‘compatible template’ for insurers such as those within large franchise operations.
As also previously mentioned, our other areas of operation (indoor playground, climbing and mini golf) were unaffected but the centre as a whole is not viable without the popular ninja courses.
In answer to the question of why we don’t simply rely on our liability waiver and operate without PL insurance.
We are advised that well worded, ‘plain english’ waivers such as ours have been successful to a point but lawyers are devoting more time and effort to find loopholes in order to gain large payouts which inevitably bankrupt small businesses and individuals such as ourselves.
Naturally this is an unacceptable basis for continued trade.
For those who have enquired about our commercial premises, this will now be marketed for sale.
It’s also worth noting that most outdoor playgrounds that have passed safety inspections have not been affected by this same insurance problem. This includes our outdoor nature play business Coast Nature Play which builds timber adventure playgrounds, pirate ships and treehouses etc…all to current safety standards and continues to trade strongly, having recently been awarded a contract to build a nature playground on Rottnest Island.
So, we will continue to fly the flag locally for kids play and adventure using our motto…
A little less screen time and a bit more green time’… 😊
In summary…
We had a vision for an indoor family adventure centre offering a mix of fun and fitness and we feel that we largely achieved that 🙂
After 3 months of trading we stared down and beat the Covid 19 challenge which hit us quite hard as a new indoor recreation facility.
We entertained and challenged thousands of kids, teens and adults over 4 years (with only the odd bump or rolled ankle).
We hosted well over 600 kids birthday parties, and many schools from as far as Carnarvon and we ran countless after school ninja and climbing classes each term.
We even managed to win the ACCI award for ‘Business Innovation’ last year.
But…
Unfortunately we then recently fell victim to a very quickly evolving Public Liability insurance crisis which knocked out our cornerstone activity, the ninja.
Once again, on behalf of the Albany Indoor Adventures team, thank you for the enormous support, the amazing reviews and the heartfelt encouragement over the past 4 years including the incredible compassion recently shown throughout this difficult final process.
So many thanks Albany 🙏🏻
Very Warmest regards,
James, Amy and AIA Team.
(For further background to our closure please refer to our previous post).
