INTERVIEW SEAN THORNTON
“We have to help people understand and optimise their healthspan, energy and quality of life. This is what today’s more informed consumer is actively seeking”
How has this shaped the evolution of - - ? It has led to a fundamental evolution – from a traditional health club to a fully-integrated health and wellness ecosystem with a model built around four core pillars: training, recovery, measurement and community. A complementary therapist I worked with personally – Claudia Carillo – is now based at our club. She runs a clinic offering personalised programmes that combine complementary therapies such as breathwork, massage and mental healing with bloodwork analysis and IV infusions. The clinic is open to both staff and members; I believe that if you look after your team, they’ll look after your members.
We’ve also expanded into recovery via a strategic partnership with Reset Recovery Studio. Located just half a mile from our club, our members have access to services such as red light and hyperbaric therapies, cryotherapy and EMS training at preferential rates. It enables us to integrate recovery as a core part of our member proposition rather than an add-on. These services are seeing rapid growth, particularly red light and hyperbaric therapies, as awareness grows around the role recovery plays in performance, longevity and overall health. Any other changes at - - ? Over the past four years, we’ve introduced a number of new elements that broaden the club’s appeal and help increase the value of membership. We’ve added three boutique-style concepts, splitting one large studio into two immersive spaces – a 40- bike cycling studio and a 40-person HIIT studio with treadmills, bikes, functional stations and punch bags – and have also introduced a 20-bed reformer Pilates studio. We’ve added a few recovery features, too, such as hydromassage and cryotherapy. These new developments have allowed us to improve our yield, launching a new membership category – Club Plus – that includes access to all these premium services for an additional £30 a month. This has been a key commercial driver for the business. Of our approximately 8,000 members, more than 1,000 have already upgraded to Club Plus within the rst year. It is also increasingly the rst-choice membership tier for new joiners. Historically, our average yield was around £40 per member per month. We’ve now pushed that to around £50 and are working towards £60–70 by offering higher- value services and experiences. This has supported consistent revenue growth of approximately 20 per cent year-on-year over the past ve years, demonstrating the strength of a value-led, premium, integrated model.
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STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2026
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