Pure Gym founder fit for North’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year crown
THE founder and executive chairman of Leeds-headquartered Pure Gym was named Overall North of England EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2015 at an awards dinner in Manchester last night.
Peter Roberts, who also took home the Hospitality and Leisure award, was praised by the judges for taking a traditional model and ‘turning it upside down’, with his ‘clear strategy’ helping Pure Gym to become ‘the number one player’ by membership in the UK gym market.
Having won his first award, when he was introduced with a comment about his lack of similarity to Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was back on the stage to collect the final award of the evening, and will now go forward to compete against the other regional winners for the title of UK Entrepreneur of the Year in the autumn.
He will be hoping to emulate R&R Ice-Cream’s James Lambert, who won the North of England award and then the UK title in 2013.
Pure Gym was established in 2009 with sites in Leeds, Manchester, Wolverhampton and Edinburgh. It pioneered the model for affordable, flexible, high quality fitness clubs in the UK.
The company’s 98 gyms nationwide are open 24 hours a day, and offer a full range of top of the line equipment and up to 80 group exercise classes each week. Pure Gym’s membership stands at over 520,000 and has grown at 75% (CAGR) since 2011.
Meanwhile, Paul Teasdale, chief executive at Castleford-based Premier Technical Services Group (PTSG), took home the listed business award.
PTSG, which listed on AIM earlier this year, is a leading provider of access and safety services in the UK, a specialist in the design, installation and testing of electrical systems, and also carries out cleaning services. The group has 10 operational bases around the UK and a distribution centre in Castleford. PTSG has over 200 trained employees servicing many thousands of customers and buildings nationally.
Catherine Reid, Yorkshire Entrepreneur Of The Year Leader at EY, said: “Peter’s clear long-term strategy has been the driving force behind Pure Gym’s phenomenal rise to the top of the competitive UK gym market and the company is ideally positioned for further expansion over the coming years.
“It’s also excellent news that Paul and PTSG’s outstanding growth journey has been recognised by our judges. These very worthy winners will go on to represent Yorkshire and the North at our national finals.”
Held at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester and hosted by BBC Breakfast’s Steph McGovern, the awards dinner honoured nine business leaders across 10 categories. Each of the winners were judged and selected from finalists leading 36 companies from across the North West, Yorkshire and North East. All of the North of England winners will go on to represent the region at the UK finals in October 2015.
Stuart Watson, EY’s UK Entrepreneur Of The Year Leader and Yorkshire & Humberside senior partner, commented: “Entrepreneurs are the bedrock of our economy and it’s vitally important that we continue to celebrate and recognise their successes, and help them to share best practice.
“All of this year’s finalists have developed outstanding businesses by being bold and innovative, capitalising on opportunities as they’ve appeared. These leaders have helped to deliver jobs and wealth in the North of England.
“Entrepreneurs will be amongst the North’s most important assets if it is to truly become a globally competitive ‘powerhouse’. This year’s Entrepreneur Of The Year finalists and winners give me the confidence that we have all the right ingredients for growth across the North.
“To deliver on this vision in the long-term, we must continue to improve the attractiveness of our region in terms of infrastructure, skills and the ‘can do’ approach demonstrated by so many of these innovative business leaders.”
