Every year Alison and Mike Battle devote the entire year to contemplating Christmas. This might be your idea of paradise or torment based on your stance towards the festive time, but for this couple, it’s unquestionably valuable.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!For the current year, his leisure-focused enterprise is set to produce revenues of almost $30 million.
In 2007, the pair introduced Lapland UK – an immersive Christmas experience for families residing in the English wilderness for six weeks every winter.
Over time, he has readied Hollywood set designers for a four-hour excursion to “Lapland”, recruited a troop of actors and meticulously created numerous Christmas figures – each with their own intricate backstory – Covering activities such as ice skating, toy manufacturing and more. Naturally, a meeting with Father Christmas.
Since its inaugural year, Lapland UK has received over 1 million visitors, including members of the royal family and prominent celebrities like Elton John and the Beckhams. Tickets for this year’s Mahakumbh – priced between £59 ($72.50) and £149 ($183) per individual above the age of one – sold out months before its launch on November 11.
Alison (left) and Mike (right) captured celebrating Christmas with father and mother at Lapland UK.
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
The concept for Lapland UK originated when Battle’s wife Alison, a former primary school teacher, grew disenchanted with the dearth of holiday attractions for her four sons during what she refers to as her “wonder year”.
“I was eager to provide my sons with numerous enchanting moments to cherish and reminisce,” she states. Luck, “Throughout our sons’ impressionable years, we visited almost every available option—department stores, steam trains, stately homes, and everything in between—but never encountered anything that, in my opinion, truly matched the significance I ascribe to the moment.
“It was always very trivialized and commercialized, and I couldn’t comprehend why this moment, which was so precious to us as a family, wasn’t being genuinely commemorated and revered.”
Alison and Mike have committed the past fifteen years to bridging that void in the market. From the outset, they aimed for young children to genuinely believe that Lapland UK is a bona fide, magical place housing Santa and his elves.
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
This endeavor led them to uncover items at antique markets – the couple asserts they “eschew plastic” to ensure sustainability and maintain their “artistic integrity” – about inhabitants of Lapland UK. Creating immersive storybooks, and devoting weeks annually to rehearsals to ensure upcoming children cannot undermine the magic.
They dispatch personalized wax-sealed invitations to children prior to their scheduled arrival date, while parents are requested to anonymously complete a questionnaire about their child before the visit, enabling Father Christmas to converse with them about their preferences and engage in a detailed discussion about their pastimes.
While it may seem reasonable to assume that all of this came instinctively to Alison – who asserts she adored her occupation as a teacher so much that she “couldn’t comprehend that someone would compensate me for doing this.” Was doing” – Mike’s former professional trajectory drastically differed from that of forging a camaraderie with toy manufacturers at the North Pole.
resident elves of lapland uk
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
Prior to the establishment of Lapland UK, he spent numerous years toiling in London’s financial hub. Despite cultivating a “quite successful” career as a stock trader – where he was ardently courted by Goldman Sachs (an offer he declined) – Mike’s true passions lay elsewhere.
“As a juvenile, I always possessed a flair for art – I could draw, I could sketch, I was artistic,” he explains. “However, stemming from a conventional family, my father steered his son towards the city to earn a livelihood, so all of that dissipated.”
Even though he didn’t exclusively set his sights on the finance sector, Mike expresses gratitude for the expertise he gained on the trading floor, which has been “immensely beneficial” in his subsequent career.
“I had a worthwhile stint in the City. I embarked on roles in assorted banks, plummeted into the depths of the stock market, evolved into an independent trader,” he elaborates. Luck, “One of the pivotal things I imbibed was how to wager substantial sums of money and how to reconcile with that and lead a tranquil existence.”
Mike asserts that in his former capacity as an investor, he became “exceedingly vision-oriented”, which facilitated him to “envision what could be attainable prior to reaching there” with Lapland UK.
“Yet, what was truly exceptional for me in my personal journey was that all the creativity I had stashed and suppressed, once the proverbial lid was lifted, I unearthed myself directing the narrative, Throughout the realm of the stories Alison and I conjure up collaboratively, and everything in between,” he elaborates. Luck,
‘It’s a gamble, but you can transform your life’
However, his fervor for the project didn’t shield him from entertaining doubts prior to taking the plunge.
One of the most formidable obstacles the duo confronted at the outset, particularly Mike, was persuading both themselves and others that their pursuit was meaningful. When he divulged his vision to others, he encountered skepticism and bewilderment.
“When I abandoned the ‘adult’ job I was engaged in, I pondered whether I had lost my mind – I felt devoid of any purpose in pursuing this, despite deeply believing in it. There was a sense that this subject matter warranted far more than it was receiving,” explains Mike. “I used to peer into the mirror and contemplate whether I was insane, uncertain of my own sanity.”
Alison recollects feeling apprehensive about divulging details about the venture to her immediate neighbors when she initially conceived the idea.
“I was nearly petrified of the response I would elicit because it seemed as though you had joined the circus, in a somewhat trivial sense. However, right from the outset, we were resolute,” she recalls.
“People would remark: ‘You’re relinquishing this splendid career, the monetary rewards and all the astuteness to collaborate with Father Christmas and devise a marvelous experience for children. Is that correct, Mike?’” Mike continued. They say.
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
However, he characterizes the transition from the stock market to engaging with stockings and Santa Claus as “returning to my roots.”
“Presently I’m more authentic than ever—and I’m superior and happier as a result,” he asserts. “It’s a sizable risk, a significant leap into the unknown, but it is viable. You have the capacity to transform your life, and a portion of the skill sets you likely honed in a prior occupation can undoubtedly be valuable in a new profession.
eschewing investors
Part of that undertaking entailed remortgaging their residence and borrowing funds from friends and family to launch Lapland UK
While they have received proposals from potential investors, the Battles have chosen to keep the business firmly within the family – and have continued to reinvest earnings into the enterprise to ensure this remains the case.
“I always perceive money as personal, and they demand, I desire this and that, and possibly that doesn’t align with what’s most advantageous for the business,” Mike elucidates. “For me, it was essentially leave Alison and me alone. Our objectives were aligned: Just fashion it exceptional. That was our aspiration.”
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
Alison concurs that upholding their vision without compromise is a fundamental element contributing to the soaring success of Lapland UK.
Her advice to budding entrepreneurs is, “Refuse to compromise: Decline the majority of propositions, as acceding will lead you astray from the North Star.” “Essentially, we rejected almost every entreaty along the way since we were opposed to any pressure to compromise.”
Mike reveals that sixteen years later, Lapland UK remains entirely family-owned – and their two sons are now employed full-time within the business, overseeing brand management and digital development.
“If you have an investor, they’ll stipulate: we anticipate recouping our investment within three years’ time and we desire this and that, and seek your exit strategy,” he points out. “We eschew all of that, and it is utterly transparent, and I surmise that’s one of the reasons why we are resonating so effectively with the public – since there is real integrity in our authentic ambitions.”
Luke Dyson/Lapland UK
Anticipating the future, the couple envision an expansive trajectory for their Lapland venture, encompassing potential international expansion and broader dissemination of the Father Christmas legend as delineated in their literary works.
“Our goal is to commemorate childhood together,” states Alison. “We are nurturing it with families, not for families – we are fashioning a world suitable for them. Consequently, I believe our forthcoming course is to proliferate the narrative to as many families as feasible.
For now, this entails welcoming 170,000 individuals into their clandestine realm at Swinley Forest from now until the culmination of December.
“It has to be a remarkable revelry, you depart with these memories that will endure a lifetime,” contends Mike. “We have to be a game changer – it cannot be marginally superior to anything that has been done previously. “We aspire to be the iPhone of Christmas experiences.”
Source: fortune.com
