In Lexy, there is a modern indoor centre covering over 4,000 square metres. Yann and Rachel Nastasi-Thiry, owners of the facility, tell us about their entrepreneurial experience.

How is your centre organised and what services do you offer besides go-kart hire?

NTKart is a family business founded by Yann and Rachel Nastasi-Thiry in 2017. The centre covers a total area of 4,200 square metres, 3,900 of which are dedicated to the track, spread over two levels. In addition to the track, inside the centre there is a bar, a briefing room and a meeting room, while outside, in the car park, there is a food truck. The team currently consists of seven people: five work between the track and the workshop to maintain the fleet, one at the bar service and one is in charge of organising the races. The heart of the business remains indoor karting, in a cosy and well-maintained environment, which contributes to the loyalty of regular customers. As for the track experience, in most cases we offer standard 10-minute sessions. However, it is possible to organise 30- or 60-minute Grand Prix sessions for groups of at least 12 people, as well as endurance events for up to 120 participants. Finally, we organise monthly endurance races, varying in duration from 1 to 6 hours, for teams of 1 to 4 drivers.

How do you manage your kart fleet and what measures do you take to keep it efficient?

Our rental kart fleet consists of 22 karts for adults and 10 karts for children. Our rental karts are supplied by Viper Kart, a choice that turned out to be easy in several respects. After testing various brands, we decided on Viper Kart products for three main reasons:

• The ease of driving and handling of the chassis
• The robustness and aesthetics inspired by racing karts
• The active listening by the supplier

The regular and careful maintenance allows the kart fleet to be maintained for longer. And when the time comes to replace it, the old rental karts are collected directly by the supplier, who replaces them with a new fleet, facilitating hassle-free replacement.

How do you retain your customers and what promotional strategies do you adopt?

Our clientele is largely made up of loyal rental kart drivers, attracted by the excellent balance between the technicality of the track and the quality of the vehicles. The friendly atmosphere and healthy competitive spirit between drivers help create a sense of community that goes far beyond the mere driving session.
On the promotional front, we do very little advertising, adopting a communication strategy based on:

• Social media presence, which helps to keep communication with the public alive
• Email invitations to special events and competitions
• Word of mouth, in our opinion, the most effective promotional channel

To date, we have not developed a large-scale commercial strategy, but prefer to focus on the quality of service to turn every customer into a spontaneous promoter.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to open a new karting track for hire?

Opening a karting track requires planning, investment and attention to sustainability over time. Here are the 3 main pieces of advice we offer to those who want to start this business:

1. Plan your financial plan precisely, to avoid surprises and manage your investments as best you can. For example, we invested in a fuel tank to reduce dependence on external suppliers.
2. Provide a large enough area so as not to limit the development of the runway or service areas.
3. In customer management, a good dose of humour and firmness in enforcing safety rules must not be lacking. This simple but effective approach contributes to a serene and safe environment for all.