Asia's largest gaming cafe to join line up at Coventry Cathedral Lanes

Asia’s largest social gaming café, Wanyoo, is to open its second UK site and first outside of London at the new £25millionCathedral Lanes development in Coventry City Centre. The hugely popular esports operator has agreed a new 15 year lease for the 3,911 sq ft unit.

With over 1,000cafes across China, Wanyoo entered the European market in January with the opening of their first site at Charing Cross Road in London. The global brand, which also has sites in Australia, the United States, Canada and Singapore,has now committed to its second UK location at Shearer Property Group’s Cathedral Lanes leisure scheme. Backed by a £21 million investment from Sicong Wang (Sephirex), the son of the Chinese billionaire Jianlin Wang,Wanyoo offers a unique lifestyle gaming experience with multi-functional facilities, leisure services and professional esports equipment. Wanyoo is set to be the largest public esports studio in the UK.

Zhaorong Chen, a director at Wanyoo UK, said: “I wanted to develop a gaming environment and social platform for the entire community; one that would allow people to have fun, relax, interact and socialise. We have gone from strength to strength in Chinatown London, and now with an established student community, we can’t wait to bring this concept to a whole new customer base in Coventry. Shelley Sandzer has been instrumental in helping us secure this perfect location at Coventry’s leading new leisure scheme.”

Cllr Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs & Regeneration, commented: “This is great news for the city and a further vote of confidence both in Cathedral Lanes and the city centre economy which continues to flourish. Here’s to more announcements of new businesses in the city centre soon.”

Carlene Hughes, leisure director at Savills, who is advising SPG, comments: “Gaming and esports is set to take the UK leisure sector by storm over the next couple of years, having already proved hugely popular across Asia and the USA. With an astounding following in China, Wanyoo is one of the biggest gaming café chains in the world, so it’s really exciting that they’ve chosen Cathedral Lanes as their second UK destination, reinforcing the viability of the development and adding to its already strong occupier line-up.”

Etai Page, leasing agent at Shelley Sandzer who acted on behalf of the brand to secure the site, added: “Wanyoo is a pioneering brand leading the way in esports in the UK, so we are proud to work on their behalf in securing this prime site at Cathedral Lanes. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the brand as they build their UK portfolio.” 

Launching in 2015, Cathedral Lanes is a new leisure quarter development in the heart of Coventry city centre, comprising The Botanist, Wagamama, Bistrot Pierre, Las Iguanas, Cosy Club and Zizzi, fronting on to pedestrianised Broadgate Square. Recent new openings at the scheme include fast-casual pizza concept, MOD Pizza and Turtle Bay will open shortly in a unit overlooking the Cathedral and the University. With the letting to Wanyoo, only one unit remains available to let.

Shelley Sandzer acted for Wanyoo and Savills advised the Shearer Property Group.

 ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Lottie Croker at Aver on 07827667638, or via email at charlottecroker@averpr.comor Jack Tonks at Aver on 07951814183, or via email at jacktonks@averpr.com

Carlene Hughes atSavills on +44 (0) 20 7409 8177 

or Elli Share at Savills press office on +44 (0) 20 7409 8884 or via email atelli.share@savills.com

Fay Jiang at Wanyoo via email at media@wanyoo.co.uk 

About Shelley Sandzer

Shelley Sandzer is a leading and dynamic agency, specialising in the restaurant and leisure property sector.  The company provides considered and valued advice to many of the UK’s most highly regarded restaurant brands, centres, developments high streets and landlords, via a lateral thinking team with an unparalleled knowledge and understanding of the leisure business.   Shelley Sandzer is also known for the key role it plays in launching new entrants and unique concepts to the market, such as Duddell’s, Honey & Smoke, and Frame.

About Wanyoo Café  

China’s Wanyoo Information Technology Co. Ltd. (Wanyoo/WYWK) was established in 1998 and is the largest internet gaming café company in Asia. It operates more than 1,000 stores in over 50 cities and has over 10 million members worldwide. Wanyoo is most popular in China but it also has branches in America, Singapore, Australia and Canada. The company serves approximately 30 million people per year.