A Nuneaton leisure outlet has halved its energy costs after becoming the first recipient of a Green Business Recovery Grant from Warwickshire County Council.
Disco Bowl Nuneaton received £45,020 towards the installation of new energy-saving technology – replacement pinsetter machines in its 24 bowling lanes. The work will be complete by the end of March, leaving the business better able to weather the storm of energy price rises.
Disco Bowl director Pete Terry said:
We are genuinely very appreciative of the county council’s support. With energy costs going up 220% we had to think about how we maintain Nuneaton Bowl to make sure we can carry on.
The pinsetter machines, which reset the pins for customers as they play, were traditionally mechanical with five motors on each machine. They were fascinating to watch but ludicrously inefficient and old-fashioned. The new way is with the pins on high-tension strings and we have installed this at our Banbury and Nottingham sites and seen a 50% saving in electricity costs.
Nuneaton Disco Bowl has 24 lanes so, with a cost of £14,000 per lane plus VAT, that’s in investment of circa £400,000. So to have roughly 10% of that funded by the council makes a huge difference. All the major operators in the bowling industry are moving this way and now we can keep pace with them which is great because we have put a lot of investment into the Nuneaton centre and are very proud of it.
Green Business Grants are there to help businesses make efficiencies on revenue costs to support and accelerate their recovery from the impact of Covid lockdowns. As part of the programme, Nuneaton Disco Bowl first accessed a free energy audit which identified key areas of the business that could be changed to improve annual carbon usage. This energy audit is managed and delivered by Coventry City Council as part of the Coventry & Warwickshire Green Business Programme (funded by the European Development Fund).
“The County Council has been brilliant and that reflects the support we have had in Warwickshire in the last few years,” said Pete. “We have found different local authorities around the Midlands have different approaches but Warwickshire has been great and Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council were brilliant with us. We love being in Nuneaton and we love being in Warwickshire.”
