Covid flip side hits firm
A Palmerston North trampoline park hasn’t been able to stick the landing after fighting to recover from the financial wounds of Covid-19.
Flip City, on Main St, which was the first place in New Zealand to have a half-pipe trampoline when it opened in 2015, will close its doors on February 28.
Owner Eloise Short said the park employed 10 staff. She loved working with them and watching the smiles of thousands of kids enjoying its trampolines and equipment. It was a hard decision to end all that.
‘‘Unfortunately, we have found it’s unsustainable to continue due to the long period of closures we encountered due to this worldwide pandemic in 2020.’’
Short said despite competition from Cloud 9, which opened in 2018, Flip City was doing well until the March lockdowns.
She said while that was a struggle, the business may have survived if there was only one round of lockdowns.
‘‘We were very fortunate, the landlord was very good and helped out with rent to get us through. And people were great supporting us when we opened back up.’’
The move to alert level 2 after the Auckland outbreak in August hit Flip City hard, taking a bite out of its busiest time of the year.
Short said customers were once again incredibly supportive when the restrictions were dropped in September, but there wasn’t enough of a bounce back to recoup lost revenue.
‘‘We were booming, but it wasn’t much more than normal, [for that period].’’
The number of customers started to drop below normal as the year went on. Others were drawn out of town for the holidays by the Government’s tourism industry-bolstering ‘‘do something new, New Zealand’’ campaign, she said.
Short had hoped Flip City could ride the lull out, and although she had put her all into it the business, it had run out of time to recover.
Mac Pobey, 9, said he was quite sad when his grandma told him Flip City was closing. It was one of his favourite places.
He was a regular at Flip City, especially during the school holidays, when he would hit the trampolines almost every weekend.
‘‘[But] my favourite thing is the challenge wall, and I’ve been trying to get to the top for ages.’’
Mac achieved his goal a few weeks ago, although he only managed it once.
‘‘But [yesterday] I reached the top a bunch of times. It’s a shame [Flip City] is going to close now ... I just got good.’’