AN adventure-sports company has opened its first shop in York as part of ambitious expansion plans.

Jim Mee, founder of Rat Race Adventure Sports, is the former events director for Red Bull, which holds high-octane events, such as cliff diving and Flugtag, where competitors jump from a 30-foot high deck in home made flying machines.

Following a mountaineering trip to Peru in 2004, he set up Rat Race with his business partner, David Powell, after having the idea of taking adventure sport from the wilderness into densely populated city centres.

Seven years later the £2 million-turnover company, which employs 12 people, runs 21 multi-sport races in the UK, with more than 30,000 people expected to participate in 2011. And Jim expects to expand the business to £5million turnover by 2015.

He has already franchised the concept into Australia, South America and the United States and extended its events in recent years to cover the roots of adventure sports in remote wilderness and rural locations as well as urban areas. It holds events for elite athletes to first timers, from night-time off-road running to an urban gym – a one-hour circuit training session using city streets as a setting.

It also sells adventure gear through its online store, and has now opened its first retail shop at the company’s headquarters in Stirling Park, Clifton Moor.

He said: “Rat Race Adventure Sports now has a clear brand identity that extends beyond the events themselves. We’ve moved from running a quirky urban adventure race to becoming a trusted adventure brand in our own right.

“We are now able to build that into a viable one-stop shop retail operation with at-event sales as well as an on-line and flagship store because people trust us to provide them with great advice and the definitive adventure sport equipment they may need to go and enjoy challenges in the great outdoors.”

• Another, as yet unnamed, outdoor equipment and clothing retailer is expected to open in the former Ikon and Diva nightclub on Stirling Road, Clifton Moor if developers Henry Boot are given planning permission to make alterations, including a new glass-fronted entrance and 80-space car park.