Fitness First

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fitness First is a chain of health clubs that claims^{[citation needed]} to be the largest in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

In 1993 Mike Balfour and Christopher Pearce opened a health club in Bournemouth, England. Within the next three years, six more clubs had been built and Fitness First became the first health and fitness company to float on the Alternative Investment Market. It is now in 15 countries with over 500 clubs servicing over 1.2 million people.

In 2003 Fitness First was taken into private ownership with Cinven, one of the leading UK private equity houses as majority shareholder. At this time John Lovering (one of the most experienced and respected figures in the UK retail and leisure field) became Chairman and Christopher Pearce moved to a non executive director role.

Because it was first set up in Bournemouth, the company director decided to sponsor the new AFC Bournemouth stadium. The new grounds is call the Fitness First stadium. But because of the old stadium was call Dean Court, the ground is called Dean Court and the stadium is called the Fitness First.

In Australia, Fitness First took over a number of Living Well locations owned by the Hilton Group. Also they bought the 11-gym Healthland chain from an administrator, and now own over 60 gyms across Australia.^[1]

In late 2006, Fitness First reached the milestone of 500 clubs world-wide, marked by the opening of the fourth club in Sydney, Australia.^[2]

[edit] 12-Month Minimum Contract Policy

Fitness First has a minimum 12-month contract policy, of which they often neglect to inform new customers. This has led to widespread ill-feelings towards the Fitness First establishment. ^[3]