Dirt Factory – What Happened?

It’s been two years since Dirt Factory raised £300,000 for the project, what happened?

They now operate as a pump track, air bag, skill session provider.

Where did all the investors money go?

They’re supposedly still looking for premises but tbf it does feel like they’ve managed to make a nice bike-oriented lifestyle out of failing to make a bike facility

Lots of things you can buy or hire on the site but not a mention of a date for the “Dirt Factory”. There is one message on their FB dated December 2017 where they thanks people for being patient then go onto mention the directors of Dirt Factory have been in Portugal building a bike park and link to a blog about it!!!!!

I didn’t invest… I’d be pee’d off if I did. Trading off their name now to run a lifestyle business and taking local bike parks and councils along for the ride.

I was going to post a similar thread a while back and forgot all about it!

Can imagine it’s hard to secure a rental premises when you say to the landlord “we are going to fill the place with wagon loads of dirt”

I didn’t invest either, shame if it has gone tits up though, looks that way!

I’ve made some enquiries with the Dirt Factory team and I have a reply for you:

Hi there, Dan here.

Rest assured we are working very hard to open Dirt Factory, securing a premise is our highest priority. We never anticipated it would take this long, finding a suitable space and the right landlord is quite a narrow market. We’ve currently got a landlord on board for a site in Greater Manchester and are at pre-planning stages. As a team we have decided not to go public with further details until we have more concrete news.

The building we are currently pursuing is the 25^th site we have viewed, 4 out of the 25 we have reached advanced stages but the deals didn’t materialise. Reasons for this are down to being gazumped, being a new company (weak covenant) and the building either being demolished or made unsuitable for an indoor bike park use.

All of us continue to volunteer our time at no cost to Dirt Factory as well as holding down full time jobs, only I draw a very small wage to drive the project forward. What motivates us greatly is the belief that an indoor MTB centre in the UK would provide an amazing facility for people to have fun, improve their skills, and become safer and healthier riders both socially and mentally.

The crowd fund money remains to one side until we have secured a suitable building. We update all our shareholders once a month on progress, and shareholders have been very patient and supportive.

Our main focus is to get our doors open ASAP. We also deliver as many school, community and events projects as possible to grow the Dirt Factory brand and business, which is helping position Dirt Factory to secure a building as well as building a bigger customer network for when we open our doors.

Many thanks for your interest and support in Dirt Factory, your continued support means a lot to us.

The best way to hear about developments and projects is via our e-newsletter here https://dirtfactory.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=556d490bf7fd1b6f120659e1f&id=6d31a44d0d

All the best

Dan and the Dirt Factory team

I did invest and I get a private monthly update.

I emailed them a week or so ago to see if they would be at Northern Grip with the air bag (cos it was ace fun last year) but they’re not-

“Unfortunately no not this year. We had earmarked the dates but the guys don’t have the budget. Hopefully we will be back next year.”

Boo 🙁

The old Barr’s factory in Camelon, Falkirk would be a good site.

There are lots of good sites but as per their reply, a lot of landlords and councils do not see Dirt Factory as a good tennant.

The main issues seem to be Dirt Factory doesn’t have a proven financial track record and most industrial sites are not safe for vastly increased visitors in cars, on bikes or on foot.