PureGym flexes its muscles with plans to open up to 70 sites this year
PureGym is planning to open between 60 and 70 new gyms this year across its markets, as the operator continues to expand across the UK and worldwide.
The group – which operates over 600 gyms globally – said it is aiming to open an additional 200 sites across its UK and Switzerland markets over the next three to four years.
This comes as the gym operator publishes its full year results for 2023, a period during which it opened 54 new sites, including 40 in the UK.
During the year, the group also spent £42m on maintenance and refurbishment at its existing gyms.
PureGym saw its group revenue increase by 15% year-on-year to £549m last year, driven by the opening of new gyms, an increase in membership (up by 11% across the group and 16% in the UK compared to 2022), and an increase in average revenue per customer. The operator said it had also maintained a tight control of costs, keeping like-for-like cost inflation below 5%.
The group also completed a successful refinancing for £805m in October to set the business up for growth.
Humphrey Cobbold, CEO of PureGym Group, said: “We have started 2024 strongly, reaching the milestone of two million members across the group by the end of January, and have plans to open 60-70 new gyms this year across our markets. Alongside this ambitious expansion we will continue to target high levels of return on capital and the business maintains a good degree of inflationary protection having fixed interest rates and fixed utility contracts throughout 2024 and 2025. We are well positioned to benefit from changing consumer habits and dynamics in the leisure industry, with younger generations now just as attracted to gyms as they are to bars, pubs and nightclubs.”
PureGym also operates gyms in Denmark and the USA, in addition to 20 sites under franchise partners in the Middle East.