Fitness First

Customer Services

Address

Whelco Place Enfield Street Industrial Estate Pemberton Wigan Greater Manchester WN5 8DB

Phone

0330 056 4210

Hours

Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm

Fitness First is an international fitness centre brand

Fitness First

Customer Services

Address

Whelco Place Enfield Street Industrial Estate Pemberton Wigan Greater Manchester WN5 8DB

Phone

0330 056 4210

Hours

Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm

Fitness First is an international fitness centre brand

Fitness First is an international fitness centre brand founded in 1993 in the United Kingdom. The company-owned and operated its clubs around the world until financial pressures saw parts of the company sold off to various owners in different regions between 2016 and 2017.

The first Fitness First club was opened by Mike Balfour in 1993 in Bournemouth, UK.

Fitness First entered the Australian market in 2000 after buying assets from the collapsed Healthland chain and acquiring a number of Living Well Lady locations owned by the Hilton Group in 2006.

In 2003, the company was sold to Cinven for £404 million, making the company private, and re-sold in 2005 to BC Partners for £835 million, at a time when EBITDA was around £95 million. The company opened its first clubs in India in 2008.

By 2012, a high debt, a failed IPO, and increasing competition from low-cost fitness chains forced the company to abandon expansion plans and had to sell clubs in Spain, Italy, and Benelux-member nations and sell off 24 of its 97 Australian clubs. It was subsequently acquired by Oaktree Capital Management and Marathon Asset Management through a GB£550 million debt-for-equity swap.

Since then, ownership of the company has been diluted around the world, largely due to sustained losses. The Australian arm of Fitness First was sold in 2016 to the Fitness and Lifestyle Group. In the same year, DW Sports Fitness acquired all 62 Fitness First clubs in the UK, selling 14 of those and continuing to operate 48 under the Fitness First brand

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