The Gym Group plc, the fast growing, nationwide operator, is continuing its rapid London expansion with the opening of two more sites in the capital this month including a new venue at the home of Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.
The White Hart Lane venue officially open its doors at the stadium yesterday (December 17th) and is a 16,000 sq ft location which is currently part of a Sainsbury’s store rightsizing to make way for the low cost 24/7 no contract gym operator.
Alongside, the Tottenham site, The Gym Group, which has more than 730,000 members, is also opening up within the basement of the Northern & Shell building at Monument. This site, which used to be the Channel 5 newsroom, will include a Les Mills virtual fitness spin studio where people can undertake classes at any time around the clock.
The two new venues will take the total of new London openings in 2018 to 12 and the company’s total presence to 55 sites across the Capital. Across the UK, the Gym Group, which is the only listed business in the sector, has now passed 150 sites and will continue expansion plans into 2019. Future openings in London will include Battersea in early 2019 at a Berkeley Homes site next to the world-famous Dog’s Home as well as the redevelopment of the Oaks Shopping Centre at Acton.
Jonathan Spaven, The Gym Group’s Property Director, said: “London is a critical part of our business development strategy representing over a third of our total estate and is an area we expect to see further expansion in 2019 and beyond. We have witnessed retailers and restaurants battle with a number of factors including online competition as well as rising business rates. We offer landlords a flexible route to filling vacant property and with low debt and ample funds for expansion, we are well positioned to continue to rapidly grow our footprint across London and the wider UK.”
New sites for the low cost operator range in size from between 10,000 -20,000 sq ft and are often part of office, mixed-use, retail or existing leisure locations. Round-the-clock access is important and supermarkets looking to downsize, redundant vacant retail space and shopping centres are among the sites the Group has expanded into during 2018.
The Group works with a range of landlords, which include Legal & General, Hammerson, Land Securities, M&G Investments, AXA and Schroders.
The Group’s latest full year results saw revenue of £91.4 million, an increase of 24.3% and group Adjusted EBITDA of £28.0 million, an increase of 23.2% on the same period last year.
