Member Feature

LeisureMax

Co.Wexford

Aileen Whelan is the owner and director of LeisureMax Family Entertainment Centre in Wexford. She runs the business with her husband Adrian Whelan and they have been in business for over 30 years, 15 years at LeisureMax. They employ up to 28 staff both part time and full time. Aileen has been one of the main sponsors of Wexford School Boys Soccer League in Wexford for the past 10 years and was the Head of Administration for Rotterdam United FC for the past seven years. Back in 2019 when COVID hit the world, it floored their business. Aileen said Aileen Whelan “We spent the following months in 2019 trying and planning to restructure to be a COVID-friendly environment. It gave us the time to rethink our business and made us realise how we had become such busy fools in our own business. We worked 7 days a week, so we turned a negative into a positive.”

She added

“Without our staff base to support our plans, it was hard to know where to begin with the rethink. Our staff have always played a huge part of our business.”

Aileen had to start from the beginning and reached out to Tom Corcoran at ISME to help with this. For Aileen, his support was much appreciated at a time when the private sector was on its knees.

From there LeisureMax has grown, it began to develop and rebuild its future for a new world. The team spent the time wisely thinking outside the box and diversifying their business to suit the needs of their customers.

LeisureMax opened two new activities since 2019 - Escape

Rooms and a new obstacle course, this was helped with their saving, support of grants and the subsidies from the government.

Their bank thankfully supported the business throughout, otherwise the business would have had to close it’s doors. They also launched a new website and restructured their pricing.

Aileen said

“We come back with a bang and have already seen the difference it has made since we reopened back fully in 2022. Sales are at 70% already and growing each day.”

She added

“COVID has taught us one thing - to be more patience in our business and take more time to rethink our everyday business life. The team want to ensure that LeisureMax Is the best indoor, and a bit of outdoor entertainment venue in Wexford.” LeisureMax is open 7 days a week and offers a range of activities for all the family including: Ten Pin Bowling, Indoor Adventure Playground, Outdoor Adventure Tower, Abseiling, Goggle Soccer, Indoor Soccer pitch, Lego, Minecraft, Gladiator, Indoor Soccer Pitch, Bungee Run, Sumo Wrestling, Body Zorbing, Hover Safe Archery, Footy Pool, Laser Tag and Archery. To find out more visit www.leisuremax.ie