Bannatyne buys GL14 from Livesey Group

PJ LIVESEY Group has sold the GL-14 health clubs business to Dragons Den entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne.

The chain was founded Georgina Livesey, daughter of group founder Peter Livesey, and was run independently from the group. The first outlet, on Chepstow Street in Manchester, was housed in the basement of a former cotton mill which the Livesey Group converted in 2002. The second was launched at Fairfield Park in Bedfordshire in 2007.

Neither Livesey nor Bannatyne would comment on the sale, but both gyms are already being operated as at Bannatynes outlets. Moreover, GL14 members have received correspondence from Bannatyne Group managing director Nigel Armstrong which said that the units would be re-branded and the spa facilities upgraded.

“We are very excited about the future and would like to assure that the rates, tariff, terms of membership and facilities will remain the same for the foreseeable future,” it said.

Georgina Livesey had already become a member of the PJ Livesey property development and investment group board and is understood to be devoting more time to group activities. The firm recently gained approval to redevelop the former St Anne’s Hospital in Bowdon and Stone House in Dartford and plans to bring both schemes to market soon, alongside the latest phase of Didsbury Point.

Until recently, GL14 had been a joint venture between Georgina Livesey and the PJ Livesey Group, but the last set of group accounts stated that it had already purchased the 50% of the business which it did not already own.

Bannatyne’s acquisition of the Chepstow St outlet takes the number of Bannatynes health clubs in Manchester city centre to three. It already owns an outlet on nearby Whitworth St and another on Quay St.