The Gym Group on Tuesday unveiled plans to open sites half the size of its present fitness centres, as it looks to pounce on shops becoming vacant when retailers restructure.
The budget fitness chain will open its first “small box” site this year, “and commence a roll-out thereafter”.
Chief executive Richard Darwin said these branches would be between 5000 square feet and 8000 square feet and targeted at smaller membership numbers.
“This move allows us to get into some locations where we struggled to get space before, and take advantage of properties coming onto the market via retail and restaurant CVAs,” said Darwin.
It already has 158 branches and will open up to 20 normal-sized branches this year. Revenue in 2018 increased 36% to £124 million, and pre-tax profits were up £800,000 at £10 million. Shares rose 14.5p to 217p.
The company added that the new financial year has started well and current trading is in line with expectations. There were 793,000 members at the end of February, an increase of 9.5% since the year end.
