PadelStars has announced a major investment by leisure specialist Dwellcourt Group that’s set to fast-track a host of new padel clubs across the Home Counties and beyond.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dwellcourt will take a significant stake in PadelStars and provide strategic advice as well as operational and administrative know-how to accelerate the development of the business.
PadelStars recently opened its first padel facility in Reading, to be quickly followed by further centres in Southampton, Bracknell, St Albans, Bournemouth, Folkestone, Basildon and Chigwell.
Founded by Andy Knee and Jamie Brooke (with Jeevan Gill, also pictured above, as Director of Operations), PadelStars work with existing sports clubs and leisure facilities to introduce padel tennis to their site.
Dwellcourt are best known as being the owners of the successful Silvermere Golf & Leisure complex and Kingswood Golf and Country Club, with expertise across facility utilisation, retail, F&B and private and corporate events.
Andy Knee, co-founder and CEO of PadelStars, said: “We’ve met several times with Jeff, Steve and Terry at Dwellcourt over the past year and discussed multiple opportunities. This has resulted in us gaining an understanding of how they have built such an impressive business, and we have enjoyed getting to know them as people. It’s a great match, we’re very excited about what their investment and expertise will bring to the PadelStars business.”
Jeff Hilliard, Chairman of Dwellcourt Group, said: “Having had several approaches by padel operators hoping to build courts on our sites, Andy and Jamie stood apart for their vision, dynamism and professionalism. With a pipeline of strong new sites being secured, we have decided to once again back impressive people and see how we might offer our operational experience as well as our investment to help them scale their business. These are exciting times for padel and we are excited to be a part of the PadelStars journey.”
See also: UK padel clubs learning value of variety
