PureGym Grows Sales and Plans More Gym Openings

The Leeds-headquartered fitness chain lifted first-half sales to £393m and says it is on track to open around 60 new gyms worldwide this year

PureGym, the Leeds-headquartered fitness chain, has reported rising sales and stronger profitability and plans to speed up new gym openings in the second half of the year. The company, one of the largest businesses headquartered in Leeds, said revenue grew 6% to £393m in the six months to the end of June, with membership climbing to 2.44 million. It opened 17 gyms in the first half and remains on track for around 60 openings worldwide across the full year. It is a confident update from a Leeds business that now operates across six countries.

Why This Matters For Leeds

PureGym is one of Leeds’s biggest business success stories, a company founded in the city that has grown into a global operator employing thousands. Its performance is a marker of both a Leeds-run business scaling internationally and of where consumer spending is going. A growing, ambitious company headquartered in Leeds keeps senior jobs, investment and profile in the city. And as it accelerates openings and prepares to enter new markets, it stands as an example of a homegrown Leeds brand competing and winning on an international stage.

How PureGym Performed

The growth was driven by new gyms, more members and an improving US business. Adjusted earnings rose 23% to £123.6m, helped by a strong turnaround in the United States, where profitability jumped after the rebranding and integration of the Blink Fitness chain the company bought in 2024. The company now runs 728 gyms across the UK, Denmark, Switzerland and the US, with franchises in the Middle East, and has 2.44 million members. Of the 17 gyms opened in the first half, 15 were in the UK. The results were the first presented by new chief executive Alex Wood, previously the group’s finance chief, who took the top job in June.

“Consumers are placing ever greater importance on their health and wellbeing, while the increasing availability of convenient and affordable gyms is bringing more people into fitness.”

— Alex Wood, Chief Executive, PureGym

Bigger Ambitions at Home and Abroad

The company is not slowing down. Wood said he had identified room for more than 750 additional gyms across PureGym’s existing markets and the Republic of Ireland over the coming years, with an entry into the Irish market starting in Dublin, planned from early 2027. The strategy leans on a low-cost, technology-led model that keeps membership prices low while protecting margins – an approach that has proved well suited to a period of stretched household budgets. The company is also expanding dedicated women’s workout spaces, now in 73 UK gyms. Founded in Leeds in 2009 by Peter Roberts and now backed by private equity firms Leonard Green & Partners and KKR, the business has become one of the city’s standout growth stories. For Leeds, a homegrown brand pushing into new countries from its city-centre base is a genuine point of pride.