Jet2.com and Pure Gym entrepreneurs share their knowledge at Connect Gazelles Summit

YESTERDAY’S Connect Gazelles Summit 2015 showcased the journeys of two different entrepreneurs, as more than 100 attendees sought to learn from their experience.

Peter Roberts of Pure Gym, one of the speakers, said that there were now more new businesses per head in the UK than in the US, which has only happened this year, with 96% of businesses in the UK having under 10 employees.

“80% of startups fail, it’s a harsh fact but a lot of that has to do with the human factor. It’s tough out there for young businesses, but entrepreneurial businesses are highly important to the economy.”

Both Mr Roberts and the first speaker of the day, Philip Meeson of Jet2.com, have had a string of businesses they have developed and exited, a unique position to be in.

Mr Meeson first started in the automotive industry, owning a BMW agency in the 1970s, but he had learnt to fly from an early age, and was an an aerial aerobatics team.

His first venture, Channel Express, based in Guernsey and Bournemouth, which at its peak transported 2m flowers from the Channel Islands to customers in the UK.

Though the business became uncompetitive when the cost of fuel rose and the cost of sending freight decreased, the organisation still had a handle on distribution, and so Fowler Welch was born. However complicated issues surrounding EU airspace prevented Mr Meeson from doing what he wanted – starting an airline.

At the end of the 1980s, Mr Meeson said, the Government favoured airlines like British Airways, but a push for airspace deregulation in the early 1990s opened up a whole new market.

“The internet changed buying and travel habits,” said Mr Meeson, “it spurred on the growth of budget airlines, low cost flights from local airports.”

Launched in Leeds in 2003, Jet2 flew to 11 destinations from Leeds Bradford Airport. Now the airline flies 6m passengers across the Mediterranean and other European leisure destinations last year.

“Our catchment area is half the UK.” said Mr Meeson, “but the heart of our business remains in Yorkshire, we’ve contributed to the local economy, and provided jobs for Yorkshire people.”

The firm went from employing 80 people in 2003 to more than 3,500 employees, including 600 pilots and 1,000 cabin staff at peak times.

But it hasn’t always been a smooth flight for Jet2.com and Mr Meeson. When asked what one of the scariest experiences of his career was, he said: “It was definitely working with the banks, thankfully the strength of our balance sheet looks after us now. The Civil Aviation Authority is also strict, and getting a letter of credit during the recession was very hard – but we did it.”

Next up was Peter Roberts, executive chairman of Yorkshire budget gym offering Pure Gym, who recently acquired the LA Fitness brand from under Mike Ashley’s Fitness First.

His first venture was a Lake District caravan park, which he describes as a “steep learning curve, when I was pretty innocent!”

Though he sold it four years later, it made him realise that “my limitations were limited, and I also learned the importance of having good professional partners in any venture.”

Giving some advice to the room of entrepreneurs and business owners, he said “don’t be a pioneer, be a follower” – on the surface, not what you’d expect from an entrepreneur, but he explained: “It’s dangerous and high risk to be leading the way in new markets. We have always followed in the footsteps of others and learnt from their mistakes.”

Mr Roberts heard about a budget gym trend going on in Germany and the US. He jumped on a flight and saw for himself what the budget gym industry looked like in more mature markets.

In 2009 Pure Gym was launched, based on the business models he saw there.

“Our success came because the concept of Pure Gym was so simply. We aim to be at least 50% cheaper than our mid-market competitors, such as LA Fitness was, our gyms are open 24 hours a day, and employ two staff each.

The firm was sold to an American private equity house in 2013, and now the firm has 150 gyms and a turnover of £135m with an EBITDA of £40m, which Mr Roberts predicts will double in the next few years. With 600,000 members it is the biggest of its kind in the UK by membership, and Mr Roberts said they were considering an IPO for next year, which values them at £700m, and there was expansion abroad on the horizon for the firm.

Despite all his business successes, Mr Roberts finished by advising all the entrepreneurs in the room that one of the most important things they could do was maintain a sense of humour.