Round the Clock Gyms Offer Budget Workouts

12-Jan-2010

By Terry Murden

LEISURE industries veteran Peter Roberts is launching a no-frills gyms business that he hopes will appeal to health-conscious shift workers and those on a tight budget.

One of the first of his Pure Gym operations will open in the Quartermile development in Edinburgh next month along with others in Manchester, Wolverhampton and Leeds. Roberts, who launched the hotel chains Langdale Group and Golden Tulip, said his
new venture was "the easyJet of the gyms business" that would be priced considerably lower than most others.

The gyms will be open 24 hours a day but they will not provide bars and other facilities that more expensive clubs offer. Roberts has raised £3 million in equity to fund the existing programme of openings, all of it funded from private individuals who have backed his previous businesses. There will be about 30 shareholders, with the management team owning half the business.

Roberts, chief executive of Pure Gym, is now hoping to raise £4m from the same group and is in talks with property developers to roll out the concept to five further locations, including Aberdeen and Glasgow.

"The biggest problem is getting the right locations," he said. "But we are close to getting something sorted out in Aberdeen and Glasgow."

He said the concept of a no-frills gym would appeal to those coping with the recession but still wanting to stay fit, including the unemployed. It will also be aimed at business people looking only for workout equipment. The round-the-clock opening will attract shift workers and others for whom normal opening hours do not suit. "You'd be surprised how many insomniacs there are out there," he said.

On the evidence of a similar business that has launched in the south of England he expects it to become cash-flow positive fairly quickly.