Budget gym chain gets pumped up with £7.6m boost
BUDGET gym chain Xercise4Less is muscling up with a £7.6m boost from the Business Growth Fund.
This brings BGF’s investment in the Yorkshire chain to £19.7m.
The Leeds business grew its sales to £21.9m in the 12 months to July 2015.
This was nearly double the previous year, when revenues came in at £12m.
Xercise4Less now operates 35 gyms, across the North, Midlands, South west, Scotland and Wales.
Founder and ex-rugby player Jon Wright is planning on accelerating its growth with the funding from BGF, which first started investing in the company in August 2013.
The Xercise4Less team intends to open between 15 and 20 gyms in the coming year.
It was started as a single unit in Castleford, and now employs more than 600 people, with 250,000 members.
Jon Wright said:”Our focus on customer service and choice, and our investment in state of the art equipment has helped us to attract a large membership base and pursue organic growth plans.
“We have a strong management team in place and a robust pipeline for new openings across the UK. With the new funding from BGF, we are in a strong, well-capitalised position to accelerate the roll-out.”
Richard Taylor, BGF, who sits on the board of Xercise4Less said: “Xercise4Less is an
example of how an ambitious company can disrupt an established model. Jon and his team have understood the market and the opportunity available to them and have used our growth capital to build a business of scale.”
Walker Morris acted for Xercise4Less, whilst Squire Patton Boggs acted for BGF.
