Low cost gym business gains £1m investment
by Real Deals & Real Business - Monday, 30th June 2008 -
A revolutionary new gym chain has opened today in London as social mission venture capital firm Bridges Ventures announces it has invested £1m into the business.
The Gym provides exercise facilities at affordable prices; membership costs £14.99 a month and no contract is required.
Its first location is in Hounslow in the Blenheim Centre – a £220m mixed-use development comprising of retail, leisure, private and affordable key-worker housing and additional community facilities.
The Hounslow Gym has already attracted more than 5,000 members since January; founder John Treharne says pre-opening membership sales have gone “unbelievably well”.
Treharne says: “It just reinforces that health clubs in the UK are much too expensive.”
The Gym’s facilities are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, following the lead of similar business models that have been launched with great success in the US and continental Europe. Bridges Ventures will establish other gyms in other underinvested areas where local communities with low incomes will be able to us the facilities.
Treharne has extensive experience in health and fitness having set up Dragons Health Clubs in 1991. The business floated in 1997 and Treharne exited in 2000.
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