David Lloyd Clubs to spin off its Blaze training format as boutique studio concept

David Lloyd Clubs has revealed plans to spin off its HIIT-based group exercise format Blaze and launch it onto the high street.

The first stand-alone boutique studio – branded BLAZE by David Lloyd Clubs – will open in central Birmingham in early January 2020.

Based on the popular Blaze concept, which was first launched in 2017 and has now been rolled out across 64 David Lloyd Clubs in the UK and Europe, the 30-station studio will offer dynamic and fast-paced HIIT workouts combining mixed martial arts with intense cardio and strength training.

Workouts will change daily and integral to the experience will be the use of Myzone wearable heart rate monitoring. Music for the studio will, as with the David Lloyd Club Blaze product, be curated and synced to the classes exclusively by Six15.

BLAZE by David Lloyd Clubs will operate on a pay-as-you–go basis and David Lloyd Clubs’ Platinum members will be able to use studio as part of their membership.

According to Martin Evans, David Lloyd Clubs' product and innovation director, the new boutique format will look to tap into the success of the Blaze format, which now enjoys "a cult following" among club members

“Blaze has proved to be a huge commercial success, increasing sales and reducing attrition, and the new stand-alone Studio concept is a natural extension of our club offering," Evans said.

"Boutique studios are growing at around 28 per cent a year in the UK and so represent an excellent business opportunity for us to roll the Blaze concept out further."

He added that the Birmingham opening will be one of many planned Blaze studios.

"We believe we have a world-class boutique HIIT product and are super confident that it will work as a stand-alone, especially with David Lloyd Clubs backing and quality seal attached to the name.

"To this end, we are already exploring other UK cities within which to launch the concept and plan to roll them out across the UK and into other markets."