OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
We don’t have any pure City locations, so even post- COVID our sites are busy seven days a week. Shoreditch had overtaken Clapton as our busiest site before COVID, and that’s switched back again as Clapton is heavily residential, but across the group our revenues are up around 60 per cent compared to this time last year, which is when we matched our pre-COVID revenues. We’ve always sold memberships, although we are focusing even more heavily on that now: over 60 per cent of our customers are now on memberships. For those who do need the flexibility of class packs, we’re also looking to introduce auto top-ups with a discount for this level of commitment. What’s next for BLOK London? For the next six months, we’ll focus on getting our existing four sites to full maturity, as well as continuing to grow our digital inventory. We’ll then look to get back to portfolio growth in the second half of 2024 and into 2025, with four new sites planned primarily in London. In our original, pre-COVID pipeline, we were looking at central London landmark sites like Soho and King’s Cross alongside our existing studio in Shoreditch. Now, post- COVID, we’re focused more on residential sites. We’ll still adopt a blended approach, but with an emphasis on neighbourhood locations.
I’ve always believed the single-format, and even limited multi-format, boutique studio model is fundamentally flawed.
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LONDON BOUTIQUE STUDIO REPORT 2023
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