OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
Our ideal location remains 20,000–24,000sq ft, with two-thirds to three-quarters of the space on the ground floor, with excellent parking. And even in the south of England, our gyms in Bournemouth, Southampton and Plymouth follow this typical model, with over 20,000sq ft across one floor. However, adding the 10,000sq ft mezzanine model to our portfolio has accelerated our growth and opened up great opportunities. It will be a core part of our rollout. Alongside our smaller footprint models, our recent growth in average yield per member is also key to expansion across the south of England, opening up opportunities inside the M25. We are excited to be opening in Enfield this autumn – our first organic site within the M25 – as we believe the outer London boroughs are absolutely prime for JD Gyms.
Organically, we’ll open 10–15 sites a year moving forward, with further opportunistic acquisitions on top of this; we are still actively looking to further consolidate the market. We’re constantly working on acquisition strategies to complement our organic pipeline, looking to pick up strategic acquisitions where we feel the JD Gyms footprint can successfully be laid on top. It’s proven to be a successful growth strategy for us so far, with circa 50 per cent of our estate organic and the other 50 per cent built through acquisition. That includes 35 former Xercise4less clubs as well as assets we acquired from Ben Dunne Gyms, Helio Fitness, Simply Gyms – including one gym in Uxbridge, which gave us a useful trial site within the M25 – and Lifestyle Fitness. We feel there is enough white space to go after domestically, so we aren’t actively pursuing an international growth agenda at this time.
We don’t categorise ourselves as low-cost, mid-market – or under
any other label for that matter
Group exercise remains an important part of our offering and will not disappear from our estate, but we are rationalising and improving the offering – and part of this project will involve the strategic removal of some studios. It’s important that we use the freed-up space for high- volume activities such as dedicated glute zones and lifting rooms with multiple platforms. These spaces are busy all day – the throughput of members is often exponentially greater than when the area was used for group exercise – and overall, we are seeing member numbers increase on the back of this initiative. We also have a strong refurb programme. Our success enables us to reinvest in the older clubs, bringing them in line with the new JD Gyms format. This typically involves upgrading the décor, removing some studios, expanding the free weights and functional provision and, where possible, converting to 24/7 operations. Currently 76 of our 96 gyms trade 24/7. What are your growth plans? Much of our initial growth was focused in the north of England, predominantly across the M62 corridor. Our 2020 acquisition of Xercise4Less and our broader organic pipeline then saw multiple openings across wider territories throughout the UK. Over the last two years we have focused primarily on taking JD Gyms further, with openings across the south of England – an area where we see significant white space for our model. Here, rent and property availability mean our model tends to look slightly different – primarily retail park locations with 10,000–12,000sq ft on the ground floor, where we apply a full-cover mezzanine. The whole ground floor is used for free weights and functional training, with the mezzanine for cardio, selectorised pin-loaded and so on.
Adding the 10,000sq ft mezzanine model to our portfolio has accelerated our growth and opened up great opportunities
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2025
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