OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
Our members aren’t as price-sensitive as we expected. Putting the price up hasn’t materially affected overall member numbers.
What’s driving your strong performance? We build great gyms and we have a method that means we can do this cost-effectively, using ‘creativity over cost’ principles. Oh, and we sell a lot of memberships. The JD Gyms model is in high demand wherever we go. We feel we occupy a niche in the sector: we know who our customers are and we don’t attempt to appeal to everyone. Many of our customers are Gen Zs, although of course not exclusively, but fitness is a huge priority in the lives of the majority of our members. It means we have a highly dedicated member base who understand our ethos and our model and really buy into it. Ours is a member base who come to the gym for results. It’s not solely about social wellbeing or mental health, and certainly not for relaxation or meeting someone for a coffee. They want to look and feel better and we create an environment that’s absolutely appropriate for them. From the moment they first walk in, they feel at home in the environment we’ve created. When I say ‘environment’, there’s a bit of everything here: not just the equipment provision and interior design but also the music, the staff interaction, even the temperature and the air quality. It all plays a part.
Anyone who has visited a JD Gyms site will understand that design is important to us, but not at the expense of the gym floor layouts. The flow has to work and this is something we study extensively. We understand the way our gyms are used. We are equipment-led and every part of our design is about maximisation of the workout provision. I’ve said it before, but to a point we feel we fall into a category of our own. We believe we’re the only operator offering this kind of product at scale and we don’t categorise ourselves as low-cost, mid-market – or under any other label for that matter. Any other news from the business? We’ve launched a new concept in 2025 – JD Hybrid – in response to changing member behaviours and the growing popularity of this style of training. We’re trialling it in five sites initially. Another significant change we have initiated is the removal of under-performing group exercise spaces, particularly indoor cycling studios. We are expanding our gym floor provision into these areas. We want our real estate to sweat all day and always be available for maximum member usage and we’re seeing a growing trend away from group exercise in our membership demographic, while our gym floor provision is growing in popularity.
ALUN PEACOCK
With 96 sites averaging 6,000+ members, new models and increased yield accelerating growth and an appetite for acquisition, JD gyms is flying, says its CEO
What’s the latest from JD Gyms? We consider ourselves really fortunate: the business is flying, with an average of over 6,000 members per site across our 96 gyms. Yield per member has also risen by £2 a month over the last 12 months, with membership fees typically now ranging from £25–£30 a month. We just felt the product was worth more, plus our gyms can be busy: we felt a rise in fees was almost necessary to better control numbers and increase member comfort. In practice, however, our members aren’t as price-sensitive as we expected. Putting the price up hasn’t materially affected overall member numbers.
In the 12 months to the end of March 2025, we grew by eight sites, taking us to 93 gyms. We then acquired three strategically important sites from Lifestyle Fitness in April 2025: Carlisle has been a target location for JD Gyms for some time; Ballymena gives us our second gym in Northern Ireland, alongside Belfast, with a third and fourth location in the pipeline; and Middlesbrough gives us our smallest location – 12,000sq ft in total over two floors – where we will trial a new smaller format model. We expect to be operating circa 103 gyms when our financial year ends on 31 January 2026.
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
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