The indoor ski simulator had been based at Dukes Meadows for six years

The Skiplex Centre at Dukes Meadows has been closed.

The indoor ski simulator closed about a week ago amid reports that the company has ceased trading. Two other centres in the UK, at Reading and Basingstoke, have also closed suddenly.

A report in journal PlanetSKI quoted company chairman Patrick Taylor as saying they "ran out of money."

"The simple fact is the revenues that we earned in the winter have, over successive years, not proved to be sufficient to carry us through the summer.

"There comes a time when the shareholders cannot go on putting more and more money into the company."

Skiplex launched the UK's s first indoor ski simulator training centre in Chiswick on October 2011.

Skiplex had been losing between £250,000 and £300,000 a year, despite revenues rising, according to the report.

Skiplex had been based at Dan Mason Drive at Dukes Meadows Golf & Tennis, which is unaffected by the closure as it is a separate company.

It is understood that any lessons booked have been refunded.

The indoor facility provided indoor training facilities where users could learn to ski or snowboard on a ski slope simulator.

July 12, 2017