Pure Gym gains close to a million members as revenues hit £160m

Pure Gym, the Leeds-headquartered gym operator, boasts close to a million members as it announces its annual financial results for 2016.

For the year ending 31st December 2016, the gym operator saw membership grow by 152k to 822k. This membership growth has continued into 2017 with over 100,000 members joining Pure Gym by the end of February - over 13% net growth since YE 2016.

During this period, 38 new/converted gyms opened, including 18 LA Fitness conversions, taking the year-end total to 170 Pure Gyms. This total has since progressed to 174 as of the end of February.

Pure Gym completed the acquisition of LA Fitness and its 43 fitness clubs in 2015.

The gum operator also reported a 28% rise in revenues to £159.9m and group EBITDA exceeded management expectations, growing by 41%. This was achieved despite the temporary closure and loss of revenue associated with converting the LA Fitness sites to the Pure Gym format.

Humphrey Cobbold, Chief Executive, said: “Thanks to the hard work of our exceptional colleagues across the country, Pure Gym consolidated its leadership position in 2016 and we now have an enviable spread of sites across the UK, including 40 in the London area.

“Almost a million people currently enjoy our affordable and flexible offer and we’ve introduced a variety of different membership options to suit a wide range of personal circumstances.

“No operator in the history of the gym and fitness sector in the UK has ever achieved this scale of membership and we are passionately pursuing our vision of making great fitness opportunities and facilities available for everybody in the country.

“For 2017, expansion remains our priority with four new gyms open already and plans for 20 to 25 openings this year in total. Despite our size, we retain a ‘challenger brand’ entrepreneurial spirit with a relentless focus on ensuring our offer appeals to 21st century consumers who want quality and value for money, the flexibility of a no contract offer and facilities they actually use.”

Mr Cobbold added: “Pure Gym’s impressive expansion continues and the scope for further growth is considerable. Half of our sites are under two years old and so they offer significant further growth potential.

“We therefore expect 2017 to be another year of healthy progression for all the key performance indicators - volume, yield, revenue, profits and cashflow.

“Looking further ahead we are excited about the potential of the business in a market where Pure Gym benefits from being the clear leader and in which value gyms still represent under 10% of the number of facilities in the UK and Pure Gym’s share of facilities is still only in the low single digits.”

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