Gym chain acquires personal training operation
Wilmslow-based Total Fitness has acquired Pro-Fit Personal Training for an undisclosed sum.
The health club’s acquisition of one of the North West’s leading personal training organisations comes following a five-year partnership between the two companies.
Around 150 self-employed personal trainers have been acquired in the move which will provide Total Fitness members with easier access to specialist personal training services that cater to a wider range of budgets and abilities.
The move also opens up new avenues for the business to grow and develop its personal training offering further and serves to champion the brand’s purpose and belief that ‘everyone is better fitter’.
The trainers will have access to a suite of benefits including advanced training courses to aid their professional and personal development as well as helping them deliver the best possible service to members.
The news follows a successful first year of the health club’s business turnaround strategy, spearheaded by chief executive Sophie Lawler, which has seen the organisation’s member base increase by 10,000 year-to-date, reversing a decade-long decline.
Having announced earlier in the year that the company had also doubled its EBITDA figures with a year-on-year increase from £1m to £2.2m, Total Fitness hopes the move will now help support its ambitious growth plans in 2020.
Jasvir Sanghera, chief financial officer of Total Fitness, said: “In order to keep up with demand from our growing member base and in line with current fitness trends, personal training is set to be a key area for our growth plans in 2020.
“Over the last year we’ve managed to reverse a decade-long decline in membership, greatly improve our satisfaction scores and double our EBITDA year-on-year.
“This acquisition now puts us in an ideal position to focus on the product and deliver our all-encompassing fitness offering to our ever-increasing member base.”
He added: “We’ve been wanting to enhance our personal training offering for some time now and having worked with this particular community of trainers for five years we trust them to deliver a top notch service on our gym floors.”
Sophie Lawler added: “This is a hugely exciting acquisition for us.
“We’ve spent the last year reclaiming our purpose as a health club and working to put the fitness offering back into the heart of the business. To now be working even closer with this team of highly-experienced personal trainers to strengthen our product offering is the perfect end to a fantastically productive year.
“The added benefits and training that we will provide to the personal trainers will elevate the offering they are able to provide to ensure the best quality of coaching and professionalism is received by everyone using the service.”
She said: “The acquisition brings new levels of possibility to our 100,000 members and we’re confident that this development will help to get larger numbers of people onto the gym floor and give them even more reason to keep coming back and getting fitter.”
Total Fitness operates 17 health clubs across the North of England and Wales and provides a full-service fitness offering.
