Pirate Studios -- a warning

[Steve Browning]

Accounts show 36 sites with 736 studios generating 13m turnover with cost of sales 9m.

 

Administration costs are 14m so a loss of 10m.

[Wombat]

Loss leader owned by Russian (insert county of your choice) billionaire?

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

Accounts show 36 sites with 736 studios generating 13m turnover with cost of sales 9m.

 

Administration costs are 14m so a loss of 10m.

 

Admin costs of £14M on what??! It's not like they have a huge amount of staff...

[Dad3353]

51 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Admin costs of £14M on what??! It's not like they have a huge amount of staff...

 

Cost of financing equipment and property acquisitions and rentals..? Interest rates are cripplingly high.

[Downunderwonder]

1 hour ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Cost of financing equipment and property acquisitions and rentals..? Interest rates are cripplingly high.

OK, what is the 9M cost of sales covering?

[Dad3353]

30 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

OK, what is the 9M cost of sales covering?

 

Advertising..? Back-room staff..? Fines for poor fire procedures..? I may not have all the details right, I'm not their accountant. 

[tvickey]

8 hours ago, Wombat said:

Loss leader owned by Russian (insert county of your choice) billionaire?

4/6ths of the owners are resident abroad.  Hong Kong and Singapore.

[Burns-bass]

10 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Accounts show 36 sites with 736 studios generating 13m turnover with cost of sales 9m.

 

Administration costs are 14m so a loss of 10m.

Cheers Steve. Seems about par for the course.

 

I remember hearing Pizza Express followed a VC-led rapid expansion model and is now sat on £1bn of debt. That’s a lot of pizzas!

 

[Wombat]

They REALLY are Pirates 😂

Edited Thursday at 07:05 by Wombat
Typo

[Burns-bass]

The Pirate business model could be good, and when it started in Bristol, it really was. I used to go to the first one which is literally half a mile from where I’m sat now.

 

Over time, prices creep up, facilities go unloved and equipment falls in quality. The savings are really compromises.

 

When you grow a concept like they have (for light touch engagement with the public) it works in some areas, but not others.

 

The fundamental problem if they don’t own the buildings (which I assume they don’t) they’ll never make a lot of cash. Rent prices will go up where, because if the nature of inflation, mortgage repayments will go down. 
 

Finance means you can run a loss making business into the ground for years and extract cash from it.

 

Safestore, for example, operates a similar model (selling space at a relatively low cost). Difference is that the business owns the buildings and the land I believe.

[PirateSecurity]

Hey, so I look after security at Pirate Studios and as you know I've already messaged you about this. As I told you, clearly and in writing, I didn't ban you for swearing at AI or the person who you thought was AI. I banned you for swearing at the artist support staff members who spoke to you on the phone and were trying to explain the situation to you. You talked over them and swore at them. The calls were recorded, I listened to them; and I'm not sure why you think then misrepresenting the matter on here is the appropriate response. 

 

As the artist support team tried to explain to you at the time, and I then did in writing, the alarm had been triggered by a previous customer vaping and this had been confirmed by our CCTV control room. We had called out a mobile response guard to reset the alarm but they were delayed. That was the situation you walked into, which you have every right to complain about - but lets keep it within the realm of the factual. I'd never ban someone simply for raising a legitimate concern, but I don't think anyone listening to the calls would disagree with my decision. I've now spoken to South Yorkshire Fire Brigade who referenced receiving a number of emails from you, our CEO, investors, our marketing director you started messaging on LinkedIn - so you can be assured this has indeed been flagged and looked into.

[PirateSecurity]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I think what appears a fair response has accidentally been posted to look like a quote.

thanks Stub, long time reader, first time responder

[tvickey]

47 minutes ago, PirateSecurity said:

Hey, so I look after security at Pirate Studios and as you know I've already messaged you about this. As I told you, clearly and in writing, I didn't ban you for swearing at AI or the person who you thought was AI. I banned you for swearing at the artist support staff members who spoke to you on the phone and were trying to explain the situation to you. You talked over them and swore at them. The calls were recorded, I listened to them; and I'm not sure why you think then misrepresenting the matter on here is the appropriate response. 

 

As the artist support team tried to explain to you at the time, and I then did in writing, the alarm had been triggered by a previous customer vaping and this had been confirmed by our CCTV control room. We had called out a mobile response guard to reset the alarm but they were delayed. That was the situation you walked into, which you have every right to complain about - but lets keep it within the realm of the factual. I'd never ban someone simply for raising a legitimate concern, but I don't think anyone listening to the calls would disagree with my decision. I've now spoken to South Yorkshire Fire Brigade who referenced receiving a number of emails from you, our CEO, investors, our marketing director you started messaging on LinkedIn - so you can be assured this has indeed been flagged and looked into.

Thanks Pirate.  Actually, XXX listened to the calls and disagreed with your decision.  She even reinstated my account (see attached).

 

I apologized.  I'm not perfect, and Pirate isn't perfect either.  I hope that we can both improve ourselves after this incident.

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by tvickey
Remove staff member first name

[MacDaddy]

31 minutes ago, PirateSecurity said:

thanks Stub, long time reader, first time responder

 

 

What bass do you play? 😉

[PirateSecurity]

1 hour ago, tvickey said:

Thanks Pirate.  Actually, XXXX listened to the calls and disagreed with your decision.  She even reinstated my account (see attached).

 

I apologized.  I'm not perfect, and Pirate isn't perfect either.  I hope that we can both improve ourselves after this incident.

 

You know that same staff member then emailed you to say she wasn't aware of your language on previous calls and couldn't lift the supension. And that I then emailed you a full response, explaining the ban. Please stop making misrepresentations on here. I'd appreciate it if you didn't call staff out by name either, as I've taken care not to give out your details.

Edited 13 hours ago by Rich

[tvickey]

3 minutes ago, PirateSecurity said:

You know that same staff member then emailed you to say she wasn't aware of your language on previous calls and couldn't lift the supension. And that I then emailed you a full response, explaining the ban. Please stop making misrepresentations on here. I'd appreciate it if you didn't call staff out by name either, as I've taken care not to give out your details.

That's not quite what your staff member wrote.  

 

Anyway, asking a customer to deactivate the fire alarm is incredibly dangerous.  It doesn't matter if your call center in South Africa saw vaping, or thought they saw vaping.  What if the alarm was triggered for another reason?  What if the source was something smoldering away in the walls?  

 

I hope that Pirate improves... you're risking people's lives.    

 

 

[tvickey]

And welcome to Basschat @PirateSecurity

[TimR]

6 minutes ago, tvickey said:

Anyway, asking a customer to deactivate the fire alarm is incredibly dangerous.  It doesn't matter if your call center in South Africa saw vaping, or thought they saw vaping.  What if the alarm was triggered for another reason?  What if the source was something smoldering away in the walls?  

 

 

We were taught as kids in the 70s how to search for a fire. Is this no longer taught? 😕

[tvickey]

3 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

 

We were taught as kids in the 70s how to search for a fire. Is this no longer taught? 😕

 

It's still taught, but only down in South Africa... which is the reason why the fire alarm response call center is located there.

Edited 13 hours ago by tvickey
typo

[tvickey]

37 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

 

What bass do you play? 😉

And @PirateSecurity please, _please_, tell us that you're PAT testing your amp!  Remember, a red "FAILED" sticker means that it should not be used by anyone (even your customers).

[fretmeister]

On 30/07/2025 at 23:27, Al Krow said:

 

Admin costs of £14M on what??! It's not like they have a huge amount of staff...

 

Well, it's not on 9V batteries for smoke detectors that work properly.

[fretmeister]

To be fair I'd never heard of Pirate Studios until this thread.

Not a surprise after looking at their website as I'm not near any of their places.

 

Mind you, my last band had 25 people in it so we didn't fit anywhere other than hiring school halls and the like.

[Gank Bass]

This is so meta

[TimR]

25 minutes ago, Gank Bass said:

This is so meta

 Karen from Sheffield...

[Al Krow]

37 minutes ago, Gank Bass said:

This is so meta

 

Had to look up what that phrase meant! Apparently means: something that is self-referential, self-aware, or cleverly referencing itself or its own category. It often implies a level of self-awareness or commentary on the thing itself, rather than just the content. 

 

That phrase is so meta

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Al Krow