Gym Group sees demand surge as young people lack space at home

Young people strapped for space at home have helped to drive a "rapid recovery" in membership numbers at Gym Group.

The gym operator said membership had jumped by a third since February as its sites reopened.

Over two-thirds of its members are under the age of 34, and the company said many younger people lacked space to do home workouts.

The chain, which operates 190 sites, aims to open 40 new gyms by the end of 2022 by converting former shops.

"The physical gym will always be really important for people and I think that's coming through in our numbers," chief executive Richard Darwin told the BBC's Today programme.

While many people worked out at home during lockdown, Mr Darwin said that many younger people "just don't have the space... to be able to do home workouts".

Gym Group is a low-cost gym operator, where customers do not have to have an annual contract.

It said membership numbers had hit 730,000 by the end of June this year, compared with 547,000 at the end of February 2021 - during the lockdown. This compares with a peak membership of 891,000 in February 2020 before the first coronavirus lockdown measures were introduced.

Gyms only reopened in England on 12 April this year, and later in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Gym Group reported a pre-tax loss of £28.5m for the six months to the end of June whiles sales tumbled by 21.4% to £29.3m.

However, despite the losses, the company is looking to expand.

It said it planned to repurpose vacant retail spaces on the High Street, which has seen the closures of chains such as Debenhams and Topshop accelerate during Covid.

Gym Group has already opened seven new sites this year and plans to open an additional 40 by the end of 2022.

"We're seeing a lot of properties become available, particularly in retail parks which are very good for gyms as they have accessible parking and clear signage," Mr Darwin said.

However, Dan Lane, senior analyst at investment platform Freetrade, said Gym Group's site rollout needed to be done "efficiently" and not end up "diluting overall profits just for the sake of willing itself back to normality".

"Rushing to snap up more properties while the current ones aren't at capacity and fewer of us are back in the office is a sign of how much the group needs footfall," he said.

"If we aren't going or coming from work, will we be bothered to leave our homes (many of which are now in the country, after the London exodus) to get to the gym?"

But with lockdown restrictions now lifted there have been signs that people are exercising less at home.