PureGym to launch ‘biggest ever weekly expansion’ from April 12 as budget fitness giant reopens

Budget fitness giant PureGym is to launch its "biggest ever weekly expansion" from Monday.

The UK’s largest gym chain said it will reopen all 230 of its sites in England when restrictions ease on April 12, and open 10 new gyms within the week.

The group also said it is expecting to see Britons complete close to one million workouts over the course of the week, after three months kept away due to lockdown measures.

PureGym said the immediate post-lockdown opening spree is "demonstrating its commitment to UK expansion" going forward, and that gyms "have an important role to play in sustaining vibrant high streets" post-pandemic.

It said: "This expansion comes at a time when many leisure and retail businesses are shrinking their estates, especially on the high street. We have ambitions to further increase our gym estate across the UK and have an important role to play in sustaining vibrant high streets as they adapt to new uses."

The chain said the 10 new sites "represent long-term lease commitments made by PureGym before the Covid-19 pandemic".

PureGym boss Humphrey Cobbold has previously said the group is burning is burning through £500,000 per day in lockdown.

Group UK Managing Director, Rebecca Passmore, said: "The lockdown has been incredibly tough both for our members and the 3,100 strong PureGym team.

“We are re-opening with 10 brand new gyms, our biggest ever weekly expansion, at locations across the country... Gyms are great additions to the high street and retail parks and we look forward to welcoming new members and opening more sites as the year progresses.”

It comes after The Gym Group boss Richard Darwin told the Standard last month that his fitness giant is planning to take advantage of lower rents in retail parks to open new gyms.

He said: "We are seeing a very good property market for us to take advantage of - quite a number of these sites are on retail parks, where we are seeing really good levels of availability.

"These are very good sites for us in terms of locating a gym, because you get parking, you get flexibility and great signage, and as a result of that we plan to take advantage of what is clearly a difficult market for retailers."

The Gym Group has 184 gyms around the UK, and retained a core membership base of 547,000 members by end February. It also plans to reopen in England on April 12.