Low cost gym provider GYM Group (GYM) continued on its growth path in the year to 31 December 2019, notching up 10% more members and delivering 24% growth in revenues to £153m. However, after their sparkling run since late last year, the shares dipped 2% to 303p.
Chief executive Richard Darwin commented, ‘ there remains a long runway of potential sites in the UK and with our small box roll-out underway we plan to accelerate the expansion of our gym estate in the coming year.’
FIT FOR PURPOSE
The company opened 18 new standard sites last year and two small-box gyms in Newark and Beverley. Small-box gyms are scaled down versions of its main sites with around 5,000 square feet, around a third of the size of its standard locations.
The estate now totals 175 gyms and the firm is targeting 15-20 new standard openings and five to eight small-box sites in 2020. The firm estimates that its market share of the low-cost gym market was steady at 24% as measured by number of sites.
Arguably, a more important metric is the number of active members and on this score the firm boasts close to 30% of the UK’s 2.8m low cost gym-goers.
The premium priced LIVE IT product continued to attract members who now total 150,000, around 19% of the roughly 796,000 total. This helped drive average subscriber revenues by 7.6% to £16.02 per month.
GETTING PERSONAL
The national rollout of the personal trainer model was completed in September and at year-end there were some 1,500 fitness trainers working part-time, around 12 hours a week, within the group.
The plan is to maximize the opportunity to provide enhanced member services across the estate and increase member loyalty.
