OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
What next for Barry’s in the UK? It’s a funny time in the world right now, and our focus is primarily on bringing our existing sites back to where they deserve to be compared to pre-COVID. Some sites are already there, others not quite. We’ll do what needs to be done before we actively look elsewhere. We do have a couple of hotspot targets including south of the river, and we are looking, but our expansion has always been steady and considered: we’ve been open for 10 years and have nine sites. We don’t over-extend and have never had aggressive “we want to do x number of sites in London” type of plans. We look at opportunities as they arise and act only where we see the need for a site. We try to look for locations with a mix of residential and commercial, plus good transport links. Our sites are typically 5,000 sq ft, with studios that hold 50-60 people. Running classes on the hour, every hour, 11 hours a day, pre-COVID our studios would often welcome 500+ people a day. Those are the sort of numbers we need – 300-500 a day is our sweet spot – as these are large, high-spec studios that aren’t cheap to set up. It determines our site selection: it’s hard to achieve these numbers in a purely residential site.
We are having to spend more time thinking about how to maintain a premium offering and product without passing costs on to the client.
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LONDON BOUTIQUE STUDIO REPORT 2023
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