Shooting down the boys with toys look

EDINBURGH event management company Bedlam is targeting rapid expansion at home and abroad for its new-look paintball operations, which it says are moving the game far away from its previous boys-with-guns, war-game image.

Bedlam has just won council approval to build an all-new paintball competition park at Dundas Castle outside Edinburgh and managing director Roman Rock says the new facilities will redefine the game’s image and position Bedlam for rapid expansion in the UK and Europe.

Mr Rock says the days of camouflage-wearing lads tearing up the countryside in make-believe war games are over.

The buzz-words for paintball these days are tactics, skill development and team building, and he says clients are likely to be high-powered corporates looking to boost their staff’s productivity and job satisfaction.

Of course, at the end of the day it still involves people stalking each other through forests with the aim of zapping their opponents with little squishy balls filled with dye.

But Mr Rock is keen to stress that in these post-Dunblane and September 11 days the Bedlam approach is a bit more suave and sophisticated than the industry’s cowboys-and-caravans image.

"Everybody thought paintball was a wee backyard business, and we saw that we really needed to change that image."

He says the company has spent about £250,000 in recent years refining itself and perfecting its facilities at a paintball park at Edzell. That approach, with tidy cabins and facilities in a woodland setting, is the template for Bedlam’s planned expansion.

The new Edinburgh site - which should be ready by September - will be an exact copy of Edzell, and the format will then be replicated as the brand is further rolled out.

"We are looking to build Bedlam-in-a-box, in the same way as when you walk into McDonald’s or Burger King you know exactly what you are going to get," Mr Rock says.

The branding extends to the uniforms and equipment, with clients kitted out in black outfits in what Mr Rock calls a James Bond/Mission: Impossible style.

The company has not had an Edinburgh location for a couple of years, and Mr Rock says the new facility is "us back in Edinburgh big time with a whole new ethos".

"We’ve gone from a turnover of about £200,000 a year a few years ago and we’ve taken it up to £750,000 now and with the Edinburgh opening we’ll go over £1million turnover.

"We took the template - it worked in Edzell - we’re putting it into Edinburgh and we’d like to do it in Glasgow as well.

"Then we plan to open ten more sites in the UK - at Leeds, Nottingham, four around London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol.

"We also want to get one going in Amsterdam for a European dimension, so that is the game plan over the next five years."

He says the company is spending in excess of £100,000 on each site, including staff training and equipment. Each site is capable of holding 120 players per session, with two sessions a day, expanded to three a day during the longest days of summer.

With the expansion comes increased staffing, and Mr Rock says the Edinburgh site will employ about 30 part-time staff.

Mr Rock says the new-look approach to paintball that Bedlam is taking is leading the way for the rest of the industry. "We are really taking the game away."

The old war-games image left all paintball operators vulnerable to negative publicity if there was a shooting accident or some kind of wider outbreak of violence.

But Mr Rock says Bedlam’s operations were not affected. "We’re now seen as being a completely different thing - it’s a tactical game."

He says the company has also worked hard to counter any possible criticism of its impact on the environment, an approach he says was vindicated by the council approval for the new Edinburgh facility.

Having been rebuffed in the past, he says he realised the need to address all aspects of council policy, and the result was what he says was the first ever straight approval by the council for such a project.

Craig Dunn, Bedlam’s systems manager, says the forest on the site of the new Edinburgh facility is currently not being managed, and the company had employed environmental consultants to assess the woodlands.

"They went over the property and highlighted sensitive areas within it, and we’ll simply fence those areas off and not use them."

In fact, he says, consultants who have looked at Bedlam’s Edzell facility have said that the forest is in better condition under its management than when left alone. Otherwise, he says, there are few environmental issues, with considerations such as extra traffic being relatively minor on the main road serving the site.

The paintballs themselves are gelatine capsules containing a biodegradable vegetable dye. Mr Rock says that when the colour dries, what’s left is a white powder which washes off in the first rain. "The birds eat the gelatine pellets, so there’s nothing left."

Mr Dunn says the company has spent thousands of pounds researching its target audience, poring through databases of previous customers to clearly identify the likeliest candidates to spend a few hours - and an average of about £40 - playing paintball.

Unsurprisingly, the client base could be largely summed up as young, male FHM readers. But the company is planning a big advertising push in the Central Belt in coming weeks which will feature women playing paintball.

Mr Dunn says big corporations are increasingly using Bedlam’s facilities for team-building exercises, and he says the number of repeat visitors suggests companies find it helpful.

"Last year, we had five Premiership football clubs come use our facilities and they all won their next games.

"That may be coincidence, but it shows that it is seen as worthwhile exercise."

He says there is no doubt that playing paintball can develop teamwork and communication, as the teams of up to 20 players work together to reach their objectives. We use it for our own staff, it definitely gets people working together, there is no choice.

"And when you get mergers between companies, this is a good way to get people to know each other, to get used to working with each other, start talking. It creates conversation, anyway."

Mr Dunn says paintball traces its origins back to Scotland, where foresters started using gas-fired dye pellets to identify trees for logging.

From here the idea was exported to the United States where ranchers used them for marking cattle. One quiet day on the range people started shooting at each other, and the game was born.

Mr Rock says the game is now "huge" in the US, where operators have built enormous, elaborate theme park-style facilities that offer a range of scenarios, including urban street scenes complete with cars.

However, even in the US, he says, there is increasing sensitivity about the game’s image and US operators are moving away from the war-oriented marketing.

"We’re looking to change people’s views on paintball. We’re here to stay and we’re here to invest.

"We’re trying to take it to the next level."