It's been a year of significant growth for PureGym, both at home and overseas. Today (13 December) the low-cost operator celebrated the launch of four gyms across the UK.

There was a launch party at the new club in Plymouth, Devon which is officially the 400th site. The other three clubs opening their doors today are in Washington, Newhaven and Wantage.

These will be followed next week by eight more launches, including one in Droitwich which is the fifth very small box format – PureGym’s 5,000sq ft offering for locations with less footfall – bringing the 2024 tally to 44. Next year 70 new sites are planned.

HCM caught up with chief group operating officer, Rebecca Passmore, at the Plymouth launch party, who said she is excited about the gym’s potential: “I was very keen to get this site because I first visited it two and a half years ago. It has attractive co-anchor tenants with M&S and Aldi and great footfall, as well as being next door to a large hospital.”

The 10,500sq ft club is an example of PureGym’s medium box format and offers extensive cardio, functional and free weights areas, as well as a studio offering more than 50 classes a week. There are already two large format PureGym sites in other areas of the city.

“We have four gym sizes – large, medium, small and very small format – and this will allow us to get full national coverage,” says Passmore. “Currently we think there is potential for 600 sites in the UK.

“Demand for high-quality, low-cost fitness has grown exponentially, with a gym membership moving from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ for millions of people.

“Penetration will improve when the whole population has access to a low-cost gym and we’ve embarked on ambitious expansion to meet this demand, investing in cities, towns and retail parks across the UK to provide greater access to affordable and flexible fitness facilities.”

According to Savills’ UK Retail Warehousing report, apart from F&B, PureGym opened the most sites in out-of-town locations across the UK in 2023, ahead of Aldi, Home Bargains and Lidl.

This growth continued in 2024, with PureGym being the most expansive business in out-of-town locations across all sectors in Q1 2024, opening more sites than Greggs, Starbucks and Costa.

This year PureGym has opened a gym on average every eight days and that speedy expansion is set to continue, with plans for 200 more sites in the medium term.

“In 2023 and 2024 we've opened more space than all the other private operators put together and we project that to be the case in 2025 as well,” says Passmore.

New PureGym CEO, Clive Chesser, says it’s demand which is driving this turbo-charged expansion: “There's demand for our offer all over the UK and beyond. All our gyms have a strong return on investment, we're well capitalised and with our flexible formats we can go into lower density areas, so we're looking for sites everywhere.”

PureGym’s acquisitions team is scouring the country for new locations. Earlier this year 12 former Carpetright premises were sourced via the administration process and will open as gyms in 2025.

Despite the pace, each location is scrutinised carefully. “We want the best locations, whether that’s in town or out of town,” says Passmore. “It needs to be a go-to destination, with a straight-forward fit-out and plenty of parking.”

The very small box format is perhaps the most game-changing model, because it brings the low-cost model out of urban areas and into rural communities where there is the need. Even Cornwall, the last rural outpost, is on the cards.

“For the very small box format the offering is the same – cardio, strength, free weights and functional areas – there’s just a bit less of everything. We still have two showers and lockers on the gym floor. It’s as though we’ve taken a belt and squeezed it,” says Passmore.

“Although there isn't a separate studio, there is a multi-purpose area for classes which is private enough for people not to feel self-conscious. We can make this model work with 1,500 members. They're staffed for the same hours, but less members just means less staff.”

Chesser says the National Insurance changes set out in the budget, along with the minimum wage increases, will be met mainly through cost savings as opposed to price increases. Although these can’t be ruled out.

“We work hard at cost protection,” he says. “Although we’d like some more support from the government, the upside is that our members will have more money in their pockets.”

The average price for a PureGym membership is £25 a month. There isn’t a national price, but each site charges according to local supply and demand.

Going forward, franchising is likely to feature and Chesser has extensive experience of this from his role as international senior operations manager at Haagen Dazs. “There's no obvious need for this yet in the UK. But we'll continue with it overseas, especially in the Middle East and the US, following the acquisition of 67 BlinkFitness clubs," he said.

Having taken over a finely-tuned business, Chesser says he'll be looking at ongoing innovation, especially around the small formats, brand development and the proposition – including group exercise. Women-only areas are also being trialled in some clubs.